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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF 
- FIFTEEN ON ELEMENTARY 
EDUCATION^ WITH THE REPORTS 
OF THE SUB-COMMITTEES: ON 
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS; ON 
THE CORRELATION OF STUDIES 
IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION; ON 
THE ORGANIZATION OF CITY 
SCHOOL SYSTEMS y 



^ 




PUBLISHED FOR THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL 

ASSOCIATION BY THE AMERICAN BOOK 

COMPANY * NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO 

M D CCC XC V 



^ 



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Copyright, 1895, by 
The National Educational Association. 



PREFATORY NOTE 

The origin and preparation of the Report of the Commit- 
tee of Fifteen have been stated by its chairman in the Intro- 
duction to the report on pages 7-18. 

The PRELIMINARY REPORTS of the three sub-committees — 
On the Training of Teachers, On the Correlation of Studies in 
Eletnentary Education, On the Organization of City School 
Systems — were read before the Department of Superintend- 
ence, at Cleveland, and discussed. These preliminary reports 
have been published in educational periodicals. 

During the session of the committee, at Cleveland, instruc- 
1 ons were given for the completion of the entire report, 
ii eluding important extracts from letters by distinguished 
educators to the sub-committees, which make substantial and 
valuable additions to the reports. The final report, thus 
completed, was placed in charge of the Board of Trustees for 
publication, under the control of the National Educational 
Association, that it may be obtained in a permanent form, at 
a nominal cost, as the official Report of the Committee of 
Fifteen. 

After correspondence was had with Hon. William T. Har- 
ris, United States Commissioner of Education, and others, it 
was deemed best to arrange for the publication of the Report 
of the Committee of Fifteen, as a companion to the Report 
of the Committee of Ten, and thus cover the entire course of 
instruction from the primary school through a preparation for 
college. Favorable arrangements have been made for its 
publication in this manner; and, as in the case of the Report 
of the Committee of Ten, any profit which may be derived 
from the sale of this Report of the Committee of Fifteen 
will be credited to the " Emergency Fund " of the National 
Educational Association, the conditions and purposes of 
which fund are stated in the resolution adopted when it was 

3 



4 PREFATORY NOTE. 

established ; viz., " Said fund shall be subject to expenditure 
by the Board of Trustees in accordance with votes of the 
Board of Directors at any regularly called meeting ; and it 
may be used for the purposes of meeting deficiencies of 
income of the Association, and for such additional investiga- 
tions and publications as may be determined by said Board 
of Directors." 

The permanent value of the report, and its convenience for 
ready reference, are greatly enhanced by a full index. 

N. A. Calkins, 
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of 

The National Educational Association. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 7 

Reports of Sub-Committef.s on 

I. The Training of Teaciiers ig 

II. The Correlation of Studies in Elementary Education .... 40 

III. The Organization of City School Systems 114 

ArPENDiCES : Opinions submitted to Sub-Committees on 

I. The Training of Teachers 135 

II. The Correlation of Studies in Elementary Education .... 157 

III. The Organization of City School Systems 198 

Index 227 



5-6 



REPORT 



COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 



INTRODUCTION 

To THE Department of Superintendence 

OF THE National Educationai, Association : 

The undersigned, chairman of the Committee of Fifteen, 
appointed at the meeting of the Department of Superintend- 
ence held in Boston, Mass., in February, 1893, would respect- 
fully report : 

On TY'bruary 22, 1893, the following resolution was 
adopted by the Department of Superintendence, on motion 
of Superintendent Maxwell, of Ikooklyn, N. Y. : 

Resolved^ That a Committee of Ten be appointed by the Com- 
mittee on Nominations, to investigate the organization of school 
systems, the coordination of studies in primary and grammar 
schools, and the training of teachers, with power to organize sub- 
conferences on such subdivisions of these subjects as may seem 
appropriate, and to report the results ol their investigations and 
deliberations at the next meeting of the Department of Superin- 
tendence. 

Resolved^ That the officers of the Department of Superintendence 
be, and hereby are, directed to make application to the Board of 
])irectors of the National Educational Association for an appro- 
priation of twenty-five hundred dollars to defray the expenses of 
the Committee of Ten and of the conferences which that com- 
mittee is empowered to appoint. 

On February 23 the Committee on Nominations ap- 
pointed the following Committee of Ten : 

Superintendent William H. Maxwell, of Brooklyn, N, Y., 

7 



8 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. 

chairman ; Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commis- 
sioner of Education ; Superintendent T. M. Balliet, of 
Springfield, Mass. ; Superintendent N. C. Dougherty, of 
Peoria, 111. ; Superintendent W. B. Powell, of Washington, 
D. C. ; Superintendent H. S. Tarbell, of Providence, R. I. ; 
Superintendent L. H. Jones, of Indianapolis, Ind.; Superin- 
tendent J. M. Greenwood, of Kansas City, Mo. ; State Super- 
intendent A. B. Poland, of New Jersey ; Superintendent 
Edward Brooks, of Philadelphia. 

On motion of Superintendent Maxwell, the members of 
the Committee on Nominations were added to the Com- 
mittee of Ten, so that the committee became one of fifteen. 
The names thus added to the committee were the following: 
President Andrew S. Draper, of the University of Illinois ; 
Superintendent E. P. Seaver, of Boston, Mass. ; Superinten- 
dent A. G. Lane, of Chicago, 111. ; Superintendent Charles B. 
Gilbert, of St. Paul, Minn.; Superintendent Oscar H. Cooper, 
of Galveston, Tex. 

The application for an appropriation to defray the neces- 
sary expenses of the committee was presented to the Board 
of Directors of the National Educational Association, but no 
action was taken by that body until July, 1894, during the 
meeting at Asbury Park, N. J., when the sum of one thou- 
sand dollars was set apart for the purpose. 

In the mean time, however, the committee had not been 
idle. Individual members had been collecting information 
and exchanging views by correspondence. During the meet- 
ing of the Department of Superintendence held in Rich- 
mond, Va., in February, 1894, the committee held two pro- 
tracted sessions. At these sessions the plan of work for the 
ensuing year was discussed and determined. The chairman 
was authorized to divide the members of the committee into 
three sub-committees — one on the training of teachers, one on 
the correlation of studies in elementary education, and one 
on the organization of city school systems. 



INTRODUCTION, 9 

The sub-committees were appointed as follows : 

The Training of Teachers, — Horace S. Tarbell (chairman), 
Edward Brooks, Thomas M. Balliet, Newton C. Dougherty, 
and Oscar H. Cooper. 

The Correlation of Studies in Elementary Edncatioyi. — Wil- 
liam T. Harris (chairman), James M. Greenwood, Charles B. 
Gilbert, Lewis H. Jones, and William H. Maxwell. 

TJie Organization of City School Systems. — Andrew S. 
Draper (chairman), Edwin P. Seaver, Albert G. Lane, Addi- 
son B. Poland, and W. B. Powell. 

The committee next adopted the following lists of ques- 
tions, which the members were directed to submit to all 
persons throughout the country whose opinions might be 
considered as of value : 

TRAINING OF TEACHERS 

1. What should be the lowest age at which a person should be 
permitted to undertake a course of professional work ? 

2. What should be the requirements for scholarship to enter on 
such a course ? 

{a) English — Grammar, Historical Grammar, Rhetoric, Literature. 

{b) Mathematics — Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry. 

{c) Botany and Zoology. 

{d) Drawing. 

{e) Music. 

(/) History. 

{g) Geography. 

{h) Physics. 

{{) Chemistry. 

{j) Foreign languages — French, German, Latin, Greek. 

{k) Physiology and Hygiene. 

(/) Mineralogy. 

3. Should scholarships be determined by an examination, or 
should a high-school diploma be accepted as evidence ? If the lat- 
ter, should a four years' course be required ? . 

4. What should be the duration of the training-school course ? 

5. What proportion of this time should be devoted to studying 
principles and methods of education ? What proportion, to the 
practice of teaching ? 



10 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. 

6. To what extent should psychology be studied, and in what 
way ? 

7. Along what lines should the observation of children be pur- 
sued ? 

8. What measurements of children should be made, and what 
apparatus should be required for the purpose? 

9. In what way should principles of education be derived from 
psychology and allied sciences ? 

10. How far and in what way should the history of education be 
studied ? In what way may the history of education be made of 
practical use to teachers ? 

11. In what way should the training in teaching the various sub- 
jects of the common-school curriculum be pursued ? 

(a) !?y writing; outlines of lessons ? 

(d) By giving lessons to fellow pupil teachers ? 

(c) By the study of books or periodicals devoted to methods of teaching ? 

((/) By lectures ? 

12. In a model school, should there be a model-teacher placed 
over each class ? Or, should there be a model-teacher placed over 
every two classes? Or, should the pupil-teachers be held respon- 
sible for the teaching of all classes, under the direction of a critic- 
teacher? 

13. What is the most fruitful plan of observing the work of model- 
teachers ? 

14. What is the most fruitful plan of criticising the practice work 
of pupil-teachers ? 

15. Should the criticism be made by the teachers of methodology, 
or by critic-teachers appointed specially for the purpose, or by the 
model-teachers ? 

16. Should the imparting of knowledge, other than psychology, 
principles, methods, and history of education, form any part of the 
work of a normal or training school ? 

17. How should a pupil-teacher's efificiency be tested in a train- 
ing school ? 

18. On what grounds should the diploma of a training school be 
issued ? 

CORRELATION OF STUDIES 

I. Should the elementary course be eight years and the secon- 
dary course four years, as at present ? Or, should the elementary 
course be six years and the secondary course six years ? 



INTRODUCTION. II 

2. Has each of the grammar school studies — language (including 
reading, spelling, grammar, composition), mathematics (arithmetic, 
algebra, plane geometry), geography, history, natural science (bot- 
any, zoology, mineralogy), penmanship, drawing, etc., a distinct 
pedagogical value ? If so, what is it ? 

3. Should other subjects than those enumerated in the second 
question, such as manual training (including sloyd, sewing, and 
cooking), physical culture, physics, music, physiology (including the 
effects of stimulants and narcotics), Latin, or a modern language, 
be taught in the elementary school course ? If so, why ? 

4. Should the sequence of topics be determined by the logical 
development of the subject, or by the child's power to apperceive 
new ideas ? Or, to any extent by the evolutionary steps manifested 
by the race? If so, by the evolution of the race to which the child 
belongs, or that of the human race ? 

5. What should be the purpose of attempting a close correlation 
of studies ? 

(a) To prevent duplication, eliminate non-essentials, and save time and effort ? 
(d) To develop the apperceiving power of the mind ? 
{(■) To develop character, — a purely ethical purpose? 

6. Is it possible on any basis to correlate or unify all the studies 
of the elementary school ? 

7. If not, may they be divided into two or more groups, those of 
each group being correlated ? 

8. Is there any way of correlating the results of work in all the 
groups ? 

9. What should be the length of recitation periods in each year 
of the elementary school course ? What considerations should 
determine the length ? 

10. In what year of the course should each of the subjects men- 
tioned in questions 2 and 3 be introduced, if introduced at all ? 

11. In making a programme, should time be assigned for each 
subject, or only for the groups of subjects suggested in question 7 ? 

12. How many hours a week for how many years should be 
devoted to each subject, or each group of subjects ? 

13. What topics may be covered in each subject, or each group 
of subjects ? 

14. Should any subject, or group of subjects, be treated differ- 
ently for pupils who leave school at twelve, thirteen, or fourteen 
years of age, and for those who are going to a high school ? 

15. Can any description be given of the best method of teaching 
each subject, or group of subjects, throughout the school course ? 



12 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. 

1 6. What considerations should determine the point at which the 
specialization of the work of teachers should begin ? 

17. On what principle should the promotion of pupils from grade 
to grade be determined ? Who should make the determination ? 

CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS 

1. Should there be a board of education, or a commissioner with 
an advisory council ? 

2. If a commissioner, should he be elected by the people, or 
appointed by the mayor, or selected in some other way ? 

3. What should be his powers and duties? 

4. If a board of education, of how many members should it consist ? 

5. Should the members be elected or appointed ? From the city 
at large or to represent districts ? 

6. Should the members be elected in equal numbers from the 
two great political parties, or can any other device be suggested to 
eliminate politics from school administration ? 

7. By what authority should the superintendent of schools be 
elected or appointed ? and for what term ? 

8. What should be the qualifications of a city superintendent of 
schools ? 

9. Should the city superintendent owe his appointment directly 
or indirectly to the State educational authorities, and be responsible 
to them rather than to the local authorities ? 

10. In whom should be vested the authority to license teachers ? 
To cancel licenses for cause ? 

11. In whom should be vested the power to appoint teachers? 
In whom the power to discharge teachers ? 

12. Supposing teachers appointed to a school, who should have 
the power to assign them to grades or classes ? 

13. Should the principle of competitive examination be intro- 
duced in determining promotions to positions of greater responsi- 
bility or emolument ? 

14. How should the duties of superintendents on the one hand 
and of principals on the other, in the supervision of methods and of 
teaching, be defined ? 

15. By whom should the course of study be made ? 

16. By whom should text-books be selected ? 

17. By whom should promotions be made ? 

18. By whom should disputes between parents and the teaching 
force be settled ? 

19. By whom should a compulsory education law be enforced ? 



INTRODUCTION. 1 3 

It was further decided that all papers written in answer to 
these lists of questions were to be placed in the hands of the 
chairmen of the sub-committees not later than November i, 
1894, and that the chairmen should prepare reports to be 
submitted to the full committee at a meeting to be held in 
December of that year. 

The next meeting of the committee was held on July 9, 
1894, at Asbury Park, N. J., during the session of the 
National Educational Association at that place. It was 
there determined that each of the sub-committee chairmen 
should present the report of his sub-committee to the De- 
partment of Superintendence at the meeting to be held 
in Cleveland, O., in February, 1895. Other details were 
arranged, and progress was reported in the matter of obtain- 
ing opinions from the experts invited to answer the ques- 
tions formulated by the committee. 

On the loth of December, 1894, the committee met in 
Washington, D. C. It continued in session four days, hold- 
ing three sessions each day. During a small fraction of this 
time the sub-committees met separately ; but for the most 
part the subject matter of each report was discussed by the 
full committee. All the members were present except Super- 
intendent Powell, who was unfortunately absent through 
severe illness. 

President Draper presented a preliminary report on the 
organization of city school systems, and Superintendent 
Tarbell one on the training of teachers. Superintendent Tar- 
bell's report was adopted by the full committee without a 
dissenting voice. President Draper's report also received 
the unanimous approval of the committee, except in so far 
as it recommended the establishment of the ofifice of School 
Director. Seven votes were recorded in favor of that recom- 
mendation. No votes were recorded against it, though 
several members refrained from voting. Subsequently, 
when the report was submitted in its final, shape, eleven 



14 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. 

members signified their approval of the entire report, and 
signed it. 

With regard to the correlation of studies, important dif- 
ferences of opinion were developed in the consicieration of 
the various propositions submitted b\- Dr. Harris and by 
other members of the committee. About two-thirds of the 
time the committee was in session was devoted to the dis- 
cussion of these propositions. While an adequate conception 
of the intcnsit}" of this discussion cannot now be conveyed to 
any one who was not present, a brief rdsiimc of the leading 
propositions presented will give some idea of its scope. 

The following propositions were unanimously adopted by 
the full committee : 

The civilization of the age — the environment into which the 
child is born — should determine the selection of the objects 
of study, to the end that the child may gain an insight into 
the world in w hich he lives, and a command over its resources 
such as is obtained by a helpful cooperation with his fellows. 

Psychology should determine the selection and arrange- 
ment of the topics within each branch, so as to afford the 
best exercise of the faculties of the mind, and to secure the 
unfolding of those faculties in their natural order. 

Language, as a subject of study, has a distinct and definite 
relation to the introduction of the child into the civilization 
of his time, and has, therefore, a distinct pedagogical value, 
forming the true basis of correlating the elementary studies. 

In correlating geograplu' and history, the former should be 
subordinate to the latter. 

Instruction in the elements of physics and chemistry, in so 
far as they are to be taught at all in the elementary school, 
should not be limited to the higher grades, but should be 
given in all grades in connection with topics in physiology 
and physical geography. 

Elementary geography should not be taught as a special 
study, but the topics usually included under this caption in 



INTRODUCTION. 1 5 

the course of study should be incorporated into the course 
of form and nature study. 

The use of good English, including the correct use of 
technical terms, should be required in all studies ; all use 
of bad English, caused by, or significant of, confusion of 
thought, should be corrected by securing the elucidation 
of the thought ; the child's best efforts in speech should be 
required in all recitations, oral or written ; but solecisms 
should for the most part be corrected in the regular lan- 
guage lessons. 

The study of English grammar should be made subordi- 
nate and auxiliary to the study of English literature. 

Writing, as a special branch, should be taught only through 
the sixth year of the course. 

Manual training in wood and metals should be made a 
part of the course for boys during the seventh and eighth 
years ; and sewing and cooking should be taught to girls — 
the former in the fourth, fifth, and sixth years, the latter in 
the seventh and eighth years. 

Music should be taught throughout the elementary course, 
and the sight reading of music should have a prominent 
place in the study. 

With regard to the following propositions, serious differ- 
ences of opinion arose : 

Algebra should take the place of arithmetic in the eighth 
year of the elementary course. Rejected. 

Algebra (not to the exclusion of arithmetic) should be 
taught during one-half of the last year of the course. 
Adopted by a majority. 

Latin should be studied during the eighth year instead of 
English grammar; and English grammar should be studied 
during the sixth and seventh years. Adopted by a majority. 

In the eighth year, an option should be given between Latin 
and a modern language. Rejected. 

United States history should be taken up during the eighth 



1 6 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. 

year, and should be studied only up to the date of the adop- 
tion of the Constitution. Rejected. 

United States history should be studied for one and a half 
years. Adopted by a majority. 

The Constitution of the United States should be studied 
for ten weeks during the last year of the course. Adopted 
by a majorit}'. 

If the community is at one on the course of study, all 
pupils should take the same branches of study, without any 
omission. Adopted by a majority. 

The course of study for elementary schools should admit 
optional studies on educational grounds for the good of the 
pupil. Rejected. 

Reading should be both silent and oral. There should be 
at least four lines of connected reading, embracing literature, 
history, geography, and nature studies. Furthermore, prose 
and poetry, of an appropriate character, should be read to the 
classes throughout the grades in which pupils are too young 
to read such literature themselves. Adopted by a majority. 

Concrete geometry should be taught under the head of 
drawing, and also under the head of mensuration in arith- 
metic. Rejected. 

During an eight-year course (beginning with the sixth year 
of age) the following subjects should be required from all 
pupils : English, mathematics. United States history and Con- 
stitution, drawing, and music. Not more than one of the 
following subjects should be pursued, in addition to those 
enumerated above : Latin, a modern language, natural sci- 
ence, manual training, or concrete geometry. Rejected. 

Not more than sixty minutes of outside study should be 
required of any elementary school pupil. Adopted by a 
majority. 

The propositions stated above were discussed at great 
length ; and Dr. Harris was requested, in drawing up his 
report, to give expression to the views of the majority of the 



INTRODUCTION. I7 

committee as gathered from these discussions, to discuss edu- 
cational values, to elucidate various phases of correlation, and 
to arrange a tabular view of the elementary course of study 
showing the location of each subject and the time to be 
devoted to it. 

The final meeting of the committee was held in Cleveland, 
O., on February 18, 1895, when the reports of the sub-com- 
mittees were adopted by the Committee of Fifteen. 

With regard to the presentation of the reports to the 
Department of Superintendence, and with regard to its pub- 
lication, the committee, having no publication fund at its 
disposal, and wishing to spread the report before the public 
at once, at its Washington meeting adopted the following: 

Resolved, That the reports of the three sub-committees be read 
by their respective chairmen before the Department of Superin- 
tendence at Cleveland, in February, 1895, and published in the 
Educational Review for March, 1895 ; provided that the publishers 
of the Review agree to furnish to each member of the Committee 
of Fifteen, and also to each person appointed to discuss the report 
before the Cleveland meeting, a printed copy of the report ; and 
immediately after the meeting to send to each educational journal 
desiring it such a printed copy, with the request that it be pub- 
lished in as nearly complete a form as possible. 

The terms of this resolution were conveyed to the editor and 
publishers of the Educational Review, and were accepted by 
them. The reports were read by the three chairmen of 
sub-committees before the Department of Superintendence 
at Cleveland on February 19, 20, and 21, 1895. The reports 
were printed in the March issue of the Educational Review. 
Printed copies Avere furnished to the members of the Com- 
mittee of Fifteen and to the gentlemen appointed to dis- 
cuss the report. A copy was sent to every educational 
journal desiring it, and also to every member of the Depart- 
ment who responded to the public invitation to furnish his 
name and address for the purpose. 



l8 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. 

As soon as the reports were presented to the Depart- 
ment, they became the property of the National Educational 
Association. 

The following resolution was adopted by the Department 
of Superintendence on February 21 : 

Resolved, That we recognize the great value of the report of the 
Committee of Fifteen in setting forth standards, defining educa- 
tional values, and furnishing broad grounds for intelligent deliber- 
ation and discussion in the future ; and that the committee be, 
and hereby are, authorized to put the report and such dissenting 
opinions as they m.ay see fit to use into form satisfactory to them- 
selves, and to print the same ; and that the committee having per- 
formed this duty be discharged. 

Upon the same subject the Committee of Fifteen, at its 
meeting in Washington, on December ii, 1894, adopted the 
following resolution : 

Resolved, That the chairmen of the sub-committees, acting in 
conjunction with the chairman of the Committee of Fifteen, are 
hereby authorized to publish such papers as are deemed necessary, 
as appendices to the general report of the Committee of Fifteen. 

It is in accordance with these two resolutions that the 
present edition is prepared. In addition to this historical 
statement, and to the original reports of the three sub-com- 
mittees, it contains, as appendices, such papers and parts of 
papers, submitted to the sub-committees, as were selected for 
publication. 

It is found impossible to print all the papers submitted to 
the committee. In making selections, the design has been, 
as far as practicable, to eliminate repetitions and to preserve 
all valuable ideas. 

William H. Maxwell, CJiairman. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., March 23, 1895. 



REPORT OF THE 

SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE TRAINING OF 
TEACHERS 

This report treats of the training of elementary and secondary 
teachers, considering first that training which should precede 
teaching in elementary schools. By elementary schools are 
meant the primary and grammar departments of graded 
schools, and ungraded or rural schools. 5 

That teachers are " born, not made," has been so fully the 
world's thought until the present century that a study of sub- 
jects without any study of principles or methods of teaching 
has been deemed quite sufficient. Modern educational thought 
and modern practice, in all sections where excellent schools are lo 
found, confirm the belief that there is a profound philosophy on 
which educational methods are based, and that careful study of 
this philosophy and its application under expert guidance are 
essential to making fit the man born to teach. 

CONDITIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING — AGE AND 
ATTAINMENTS 

It is a widely prevalent doctrine, to which the customs of 15 
our best schools conform, that teachers of elementary schools 
should have a secondary or high-school education, and that 
teachers of high schools should have a collegiate education. 
Your committee believe that these are the minimum acquire- 
ments that can generally be accepted, that the scholarship, cul-20 

ture, and power gained by four years of study in advance of 

19 



20 RErORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

the pupils are not too much to be rightfully demanded, and 
that as a rule no one ought to become a teacher who has not 
the age and attainments presupposed in the possessor of a high- 
school diploma. There are differences in higli schools, it is 
5 true, and a high school diploma is not a fixed standard of 
attainment ; but in these United States it is one of the most 
definite and uniform standards that we possess, and varies less 
than college degrees vary or than elementary schools and local 
standards of culture vary. 

ID It is of course implied in the foregoing remarks that the high 
school from which the candidate comes is known to be a repu- 
table school, and that its diploma is proof of the completion of 
a good four-years' course in a creditable manner. If these con- 
ditions do not exist, careful examination is the only recourse, 

15 If this condition, high-school graduation or proof by exam- 
ination of equivalent scholarship, be accepted, the questions of 
the age and attainment to be reached before entering upon 
professional study and training are already settled. But if a 
more definite statement be desired, then it may be said that 

20 the candidate for admission to a normal or training school 
should be eighteen years of age and should have studied 
English, mathematics, and science to the extent usually pur- 
sued in high schools, should be able to write readily, correctly, 
and methodically upon topics within the teacher's necessary 

25 range of thought and conversation, and should have studied, 
for two or more years, at least one language beside English. 
Skill in music and drawing is desirable, particularly ability to 
sketch readily and effectively. 

TRAINING SCHOOLS 

The training of teachers may be done in normal schools, 
30 normal classes in academies and high schools, and in city train- 
ing schools. To all these the general term " training schools" 
will be applied. Those instructed in these schools will be 
called pupils while engaged in professional stud)', and pupil- 
teachers or teachcrs-in-training while in practice-teaching pre- 
35 paratory to graduation. Teachers whose work is to be observed 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 21 

by pupil-teachers will be called model-teachers ; teachers in 
charge of pupil-teachers during their practice work will be 
called critic-teachers. In some institutions model-teachers 
and critic-teachers are the same persons. The studies usu- 
ally pursued in academies and high schools will be termed 5 
academic, and those post-academic studies to be pursued be- 
fore or during practice-teaching as a preparation therefor will 
be termed orofessional. 

ACADEMIC STUDIES 

Whether academic studies have any legitimate place in a 
normal or training school is a question much debated. It can- lo 
not be supposed that your committee can settle in a paragraph 
a question upon which many essays have been written, many 
speeches delivered, and over which much controversy has 
been waged. 

If training schools are to be distinguished from other sec- 15 
ondary schools they must do a work not done in other schools. 
So far as they teach common branches of study they are doing 
what other schools are doing, and have small excuse for ex- 
istence ; but it may be granted that methods can practically be 
taught only as to subjects, that the study done in professional 20 
schools may so treat of the subjects of study, not as objects 
to be acquired, but as objects to be presented, that their treat- 
ment shall be wholly professional. 

One who is to teach a subject needs to know it as a whole 
made up of related and subordinate parts, and hence must 25 
study it by a method that will give this knowledge. It is not 
necessary to press the argument that many pupils enter normal 
and training schools with such slight preparation as to require 
instruction in academic subjects. The college with a prepara- 
tory department is, as a rule, an institution of distinctly lower 30 
grade than one without such a department. Academic work 
in normal schools that is of the nature of preparation for 
professional w'ork, lowers the standard and perhaps the useful- 
ness of such a school ; but academic work done as a means of 
illustrating or enforcing professional truth has its place in a 35 



22 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

professional school as in effect a part of the professional work. 
Professional study differs widely from academic study. In 
the one, a science is studied in its relation to the studying 
mind ; in the other, in reference to its principles and appHca- 
5 tions. The aim of one kind of study is power to apply ; of the 
other, power to present. The tendency of the one is to bring 
the learner into sympathy with the natural world, of the other 
with the child world. How much broader becomes the teacher 
who takes both the academic and the professional view! He 

lowho learns that he may know and he who learns that he may 
teach are standing in quite different mental attitudes. One 
works for knowledge of subject-matter; the other that his 
knowledge may have due organization, that he may bring to 
consciousness the apperceiving ideas by means of which matter 

15 and method may be suitably conjoined. 

How to study is knowledge indispensable to knowing how 
to teach. The method of teaching can best be illustrated by 
teaching. The attitude of a pupil in a training school must 
be that of a learner whose mental stores are expanding, who 

20 faces the great world of knowledge with the purpose to survey 
a portion of it. If we insist upon a sufficient preparation for 
admission, the question of what studies to pursue and espe- 
cially the controversy between professional and academic work 
will be mainly settled. 

PROFESSIONAL WORK 

25 Professional training comprises two parts : (a) The science 
of teaching, and (d) the art of teaching. 

In the science of teaching dSQ included: (i) Psychology as 

a basis for principles and methods ; (2) Methodology as a 

guide to instruction ; (3) School economy, which adjusts the 

30 conditions of work; and (4) History of education, which gives 

breadth of view. " 

The art of teaching is best, gained: (i) by observation of 
good teaching ; (2) by practice-teaching under criticism. 

RELATIVE TIME 

The existence and importance of each of these elements in 



ON TRAIxNflNG OF TEACHERS. 23 

the training of teachers are generally acknowledged. Their 
order and proportionate treatment give rise to differences of 
opinion. Some would omit the practice work entirely, launch- 
ing the young teacher upon independent work directly from 
her pupilage in theory. Others, and much the greater number, 5 
advise some preparation in the form of guided experience be- 
fore the training be considered complete. These vary greatly 
in their estimate of the proportionate time to be given to 
practice during training. The answers to the question, " What 
proportion?" which your committee has received, range from 10 
one-sixteenth to two-thirds as the proportion of time to be 
given to practice. The greater number, however, advocate a 
division of time about equal between theory and practice. 

The normal schools incline to the smallest proportion for 
practice-teaching, the city training-schools to the largest. It 15 
should be borne in mind, however, that city training-schools 
are a close continuation, usually, of high schools, and that the 
high-school courses give a more uniform and probably a more 
adequate preparation than the students entering normal schools 
have usually had. Their facilities for practice-teaching are much 20 
greater than normal schools can secure, and for this reason also 
practice is made relatively more important. As to the relative 
merits of city training-schools and normal schools, your com- 
mittee does not desire to express an opinion ; the conditions of 
education demand the existence of both, and both are necessities 25 
of educational advancement. It is important to add, however, 
that in the judgment of your committee not less than half of 
the time spent under training by the apprentice-teacher should 
be given to observation and practice, and that this practice in 
its conditions should be as similar as possible to the work she 30 
will later be required to do independently. 

SCIENCE OF TEACHING — PSYCHOLOGY 

The laws of apperception teach that one is ready to appre- 
hend new truth most readily when he has already established 
a considerable and well-arranged body of ideas thereon. 

Suggestion, observation, and reflection are each most fruit- 35 



24 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

ful when a foundation of antecedent knowledge has been pro- 
vided. Hence your committee recommends that early in their 
course of study teachers in training assume as true the well- 
known facts of psychology and the essential principles of 
5 education, and make their later study and practice in the light 
of these principles. These principles thus become the norm 
of educational thought, and their truth is continually demon- 
strated by subsequent experience. From this time theory 
and practice should proceed together in mutual aid and 

lo support. 

Most fundamental and important of the professional studies 
which ought to be pursued by one intending to teach is psy- 
chology. This study should be pursued at two periods of the 
training-school course, the beginning and the end, and its. 

15 principles should be appealed to daily when not formally 
studied. The method of study should be both deductive and 
inductive. The terminology should be early learned from 
a suitable text-book, and significance given to the terms by 
introspection, observation, and analysis. Power of introspec- 

2otion should be gained, guidance in observation should be 
given, and confirmation of psychological principles should be 
sought on every hand. The habit of thinking analytically and 
psychologically should be formed by every teacher. At the 
close of the course a more profound and more completely 

25 inductive study of physiological psychology should be made. 
In this way, a tendency to investigate should be encouraged or 
created. 

STUDY OF CHILDREN 

Modern educational thought emphasizes the opinion that 
the child, not the subject of study, is the guide to the teacher's 

30 efforts. To know the child is of paramount importance. How 
to know the child must be an important item of instruction to 
the teacher in training. The child must be studied as to his 
physical, mental, and moral condition. Is he in good health ? 
Are his senses of sight and hearing normal, or in what degree 

35 abnormal ? What is his temperament ? Which of his faculties 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 25 

seem weak or dormant? Is he eye-minded or ear-minded? 
What are his powers of attention ? What are his likes and 
disHkes? How far is his moral nature developed, and what 
are its tendencies? By what tests can the degree of difference 
between bright and dull children be estimated? 5 

To study effectively and observingly these and similar ques- 
tions respecting children, is a high art. No common-sense 
power of discerning human nature is sufificient ; though 
common sense and sympathy go a long way in such study. 
Weighing, measuring, elaborate investigation requiring appa- lo 
ratus and laboratory methods, are for experts, not teachers 
in training. Above all, it must ever be remembered that the 
child is to be studied as a personality and not as an object to 
be weighed or analyzed. 

METHODOLOGY 

A part of the work under this head must be a study of the 15 
mental and moral effects of different methods of teaching and 
examination, the relative value of individual and class instruc- 
tion at different periods of school life and in the study of dif- 
ferent branches. The art of questioning is to be studied in its 
foundation principles and by the illustration of the best 20 
examples. Some review of the branches which are to be 
taught may be made, making the teacher's knowledge of them 
ready and distinct as to the relations of the several parts of the 
subject to one another and of the whole to kindred subjects. 
These and many such subjects should be discussed in the class 25 
in pedagogy, investigation should be begun, and the lines on 
■which it can be followed should be distinctly laid down. 

The laws of psychology, or the capabilities and methods of 
mind-activity, are themselves the fundamental laws of teach- 
ing, which is the act of exciting normal and profitable mind- 30 
action. Beyond these fundamental laws, the principles of edu- 
cation are to be derived inductively. These inductions when 
brought to test will be found to be rational inferences from 
psychological laws and thus founded upon and explained by 
them. 2S 



26 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

SCHOOL ECONOMY 

School economy, though a factor of great importance in the 
teacher's training, can be best studied by the teacher of some 
maturity and experience, and is of more value in the equipment 
of secondary than of elementary teachers. Only its outlines 
5 and fundamental principles should be studied in the ordinary 
training-school. 

HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Breadth of mind consists in the power to view facts and 
•opinions from the standpoints of others. It is this truth which 
makes the study of history in a full, appreciative way so influ- 

loential in giving mental breadth. This general advantage the 
history of education has in still larger degree, because our in- 
terest in the views and experiences of those engaged like us in 
training the young, enables us to enter more fully into their 
thoughts and purposes than we could into those of the warrior 

15 or ruler. From the efforts of the man we imagine his surround- 
ings, which we contrast with our own. To the abstract element 
of theoretical truth is added the warm human interest we feel 
in the hero, the generous partisan of truth. The history of 
education is particularly full of examples of noble purpose, ad- 

2ovanced thought, and moral heroism. It is inspiring to fill our 
minds with these human ideals. We read in the success of the 
unpractical Pestalozzi the award made to self-sacrifice, sym- 
pathy, and enthusiasm expended in giving application to a vital 
truth. 

25 But with enthusiasm for ideals history gives us caution, 
warns us against the moving of the pendulum, and gives us 
points of departure from which to measure progress. It gives 
us courage to attack difficult problems. It shows which the 
abiding problems are — those that can be solved only by wait- 

3oing, and not tossed aside by a supreme effort. It shows us the 
progress of the race, the changing ideals of the perfect man, 
and the means by which men have sought to realize these 
ideals. We can from its study better answer the question, 
What is education, what may it accomplish, and how may its 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 2/ 

ideals be realized ? It gives the evolution of the present and 
explains anomalies in our work. And yet the history of edu- 
cation is not a subject to be treated extensively in a training 
school. All but the outlines may better be reserved for later 
professional reading. 5 

TRAINING IN TEACHING 

Training to teach requires (i) schools for observation, and 
(2) schools for practice. 

. Of necessity, these schools must be separate in purpose and 
in organization. A practice school cannot be a model school. 
The pupil-teachers should have the opportunity to observe the 10 
best models of the teaching art ; and the manner, methods, and 
devices of the model-teacher should be noted, discussed, and 
referred to the foundation principles on which they rest. 
Allowable modifications of this observed work may be sug- 
gested by the pupil-teacher and approved by the teacher in 15 
charge. 

There should be selected certain of the best teachers in reg- 
ular school work whom the pupil-teachers may be sent to 
observe. The pupil-teachers should take no part in the school 
work nor cause any change therein. They should, however, 20 
be told in advance by the teacher what purpose she seeks to 
accomplish. This excites expectation and brings into con- 
sciousness the apperceiving ideas by which the suggestions of 
the exercise, as they develop, may be seized and assimilated. 

At first these visits should be made in company with their 25 
teacher of methods, and the work of a single class in one sub- 
ject should be first observed. After such visits the teacher of 
methods in the given subject should discuss with the pupil- 
teachers the work observed. The pupil-teachers should first 
describe the work they have seen and specify the excellences 30 
noted, and tell why these things are commendable and upon 
what laws of teaching they are based. Next the pupil-teachers 
should question the teacher of methods as to the cause, pur- 
pose, or influence of things noted, and matters of doubtful 
propriety — if there be such — should be considered. Then 35 



28 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

the teacher in turn should question her pupil-teachers as to 
matters that seem to have escaped their notice, as to the 
motive of the model-teacher, as to the reason for the order of 
treatment, or form of question, wherein lay the merit of her 
5 method, the secret of her power. When pupil-teachers have 
made such observations several times, with several teachers and 
in several subjects, the broader investigation may be made as to 
the organization of one of the model rooms, its daily programme 
of recitations and of study, the methods of discipline, the rela- 

lotions between pupils and teacher, the "school spirit," the 
school movements, and class progress. This work should be 
done before teaching groups or classes of pupils is attempted, 
and should form an occasional exercise during the period of 
practice-teaching as a matter of relief and inspiration. If an 

15 artist requires the suggestive help of a good example that stirs 
his own originality, why should not a teacher ? 

THE PRACTICE-SCHOOL 

During the course in methodology certain steps closely pre- 
paratory to practice-teaching may be taken, i. The pupil- 
teacher may analyze the topic to be taught, noting essentials 

20 and incidentals, seeking the connections of the subject with 
the mental possessions of the pupils to be considered and the 
sequences from these points of contact to the knowledge to be 
gained under instruction. 2. Next, plans of lessons may be 
prepared and series of questions for teaching the given sub- 

25Ject. 3. Giving lessons to fellow pupil-teachers leads to 
familiarity with the mechanism of class work, such as calling, 
directing, and dismissing classes, gives the beginner ease and 
self-confidence, leads to careful preparation of lessons, gives 
skill in asking questions and in the use of apparatus. 

30 The practice-teaching should be in another school, prefera- 
bly in a different building, and should commence with group- 
teaching in a recitation room apart from the schoolroom. 
Actual teaching of small groups of children gives opportunity 
for the study of the child-mind in its efforts at reception and 

35 assimilation of new ideas, and shows the modifications in lesson 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 29 

plans that must be made to adapt the subject matter to the 
child's tastes and activities. But the independent charge for 
a considerable time of a schoolroom with a full quota of 
pupils, the pupil-teacher and the children being much of the 
time the sole occupants of the room — in short, the realization 5 
of ordinary school conditions, with the opportunity to go for 
advice to a friendly critic, is the most valuable practice ; and 
no practice short of this can be considered of great value 
except as preparation for this chief form of preparatory 
practice. All this work should have its due proportion only, 10 
or evil may result. For example, lesson plans tend to formal- 
ism, to self-conceit, to work in few and narrow lines, to study 
of subjects rather than of pupils ; lessons to fellow-pupils 
make one self-conscious, hinder the growth of enthusiasm in 
work, and are entirely barren if carried beyond a very few 15 
exercises ; teaching groups of children for considerable time 
unfits the teacher for the double burden of discipline and 
instruction, to bear both of which simultaneously and easily is 
the teacher's greatest difficulty and most essential power. 

A critic-teacher should be appointed to the oversight of 20 
two such pupil-teachers, each in charge of a schoolroom. The 
critic may also supervise one or more teachers practicing for 
brief periods daily with groups of children. 

The pupil-teachers are now to emphasize practice rather 
than theory, to work under the direction of one who regards 25 
the interests of the children quite as much as those of the 
teacher-in-training. The critic must admit the principles of 
education and general methods taught by the teacher of 
methodology, but she may have her own devices and even 
special methods that need not be those of the teacher of 30 
methodology. No harm will come to the teachers-in-training 
if they learn that principles must be assented to by all, but 
that methods may bear the stamp of the personality of the 
teacher; that all things must be considered from the point of 
view of their effect upon the pupils ; the critic maintaining the 35 
claims of the children, the teacher of methods conforming to 
the laws of mind and the science of the subjects taught. The 



30 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

critics must teach for their pupil-teachers and show in action 
the justness of their suggestions. In this sense they are model- 
teachers as well as critics. 

The critic should at the close of school meet her pupil- 
5 teachers for a report of their experiences through the day : 
What they have attempted, how they have tried to do it, why 
they did so, and what success they gained. Advice as to 
overcoming difficulties, encouragement under trial, caution if 
need be, help for the work of to-morrow, occupy the hour, 
lo Above all, the critic should be a true friend, a womanly 
and cultivated woman, and an inspiring companion, whose 
presence is helpful to work and improving to personality. 

LENGTH OF TRAINING-SCHOOL COURSE 

There arc three elements which determine the time to be 
spent in a training school — the time given to academic studies, 

15 the time given to professional studies, and the time given to 
practice. The sum of these periods will be the time required 
for the training course. Taking these in the inverse order, let 
us consider how much time is required for practice work with 
pupils. The time given to lesson outlines and practice with 

20 fellow pupil-teachers may be considered a part of the profes- 
sional study rather than of practice-teaching. The period of 
practice with pupils must not be too short, whether we con- 
sider the interests of the pupils or of the teachers-in-training. 
An effort is usually made to counteract the effect upon the 

25 children of a succession of crude efforts of teachers beginning 
practice by strengthening the teaching and supervision through 
the employment of a considerable number of model and super- 
visory teachers, and by dividing the pupils into small groups 
so that much individual work can be done. These arrange- 

30 ments, while useful for their purpose, destroy to a considerable 
degree the usual conditions under which school work is to be 
done and tend to render the teachers-in-training formal and 
imitative. 

The practice room should be, as far as may be, the ordinary 

35 school, with the difficulties and responsibilities that will be met 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 3 1 

later. The responsibility for order, discipline, progress, records, 
reports, communication with parents and school authorities, 
must fall fully upon the young teacher, who has a friendly as- 
sistant to whom she can go for advice in the person of a wise 
and experienced critic, not constantly at hand, but constantly 5 
within reach. 

Between the critic and the teacher-in-training there should 
exist the most cordial and familiar relations. These relations 
are based on the one hand upon an appreciation of wisdom and 
kindness, on the other, upon an appreciation of sincerity and lo 
effort. The growth of such relations, and the fruitage which 
follows their growth, require time. A half-year is not too 
long to be allotted for them. During this half-year experience, 
self-confidence and growth in power have been gained ; but the 
pupil-teacher is still not ready to be set aside to work out her 15 
own destiny. At this point she is just ready for marked ad- 
vance, which should be helped and guided. To remain longer 
with her critic friend may cause imitation rather than inde- 
pendence, may lead to contentment and cessation of growth. 
She should now be transferred to the care of a second critic of 20 
a different personality, but of equal merit. The new critic is 
bound by her duty and her ambition to see that the first half 
year's advancement is maintained in the second. The pupil- 
teacher finds that excellence is not all upon one model. The 
value of individuality impresses her. She gains a view of solid 25 
principles wrapped in diverse characteristics. Her own indi- 
viduality rises to new importance, and the elements of a 
growth not at once to be checked start up within her. For 
tne care of the second critic a second half year must be allowed, 
which extends the practice work with pupils through an entire 30 
school year. For the theoretical work a year is by general 
experience proven sufficient. The ideal training course is, 
then, one of two years' length. 

Provision for the extended practice which is here recom- 
mended can be made only by city training-schools and by 35 
normal schools having connection with the schools of a city. 
To set apart a building of several rooms as a school of practice 



32 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

will answer the purpose only when there are very few teachers 
in trainincr. In order to give each pupil-teacher a year of 
practice the number of practice rooms must equal the number 
of teachers to be graduated annually from the training school, 
5 be the number ten, or fifty, or five hundred. In any con- 
siderable city a school for practice will not suffice ; many 
schools for practice must be secured. This can be done by 
selecting one excellent teacher in each of a sufficient number 
of school buildings, and making her a critic-teacher, giving her 

lo charge of two schoolrooms, in each of which is placed a pupil- 
teacher for training. 

This insures that the teaching shall be done as nearly as 
may be under ordinary conditions, brings the pupil-teachers at 
once into the general body of teachers, makes the corps of 

15 critics a leaven of zeal, and good teaching scattered among 
the schools. This body of critics will uplift the schools. 
More capable in the beginning than the average teacher, led 
to professional study, ambitious for the best things, they make 
greater progress than they otherwise would do, and are suffi- 

2ocient in themselves to inspire the general body of teachers. 
For the sake of the pupil-teachers, and the children, too, this 
plan is best. Its economy also will readily be apparent. This 
plan has been tried for several years in the schools of Provi- 
dence, with results fully equal to those herein claimed. 

TESTS OF SUCCESS 

25 The tests of success in practice-teaching are in the main 
those to be applied to all teaching. Do her pupils grow more 
honest, industrious, polite? Do they admire their teacher? 
Does she secure obedience and industry only while demanding 
it, or has she influence that reaches beyond her presence ? Do 

sober pupils think well and talk well? As to the teacher her- 
self : Has she sympathy and tact, self-reliance and originality, 
breadth and intensity? Is she systematic, direct, and business- 
like ? Is she courteous, neat in person and in work ? Has she 
discernment of character and a just standard of requirement 

35 and attainment ? 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 33 

These are some of the questions one must answer before he 
pronounces any teacher a success or a failure. 

Admission to a training school assumes that the pupil has 
good health, good scholarship, good sense, good ability, and 
devotion to the work of teaching. If all these continue to be 5 
exhibited in satisfactory degree and the pupil goes through the 
prescribed course of study and practice, the diploma of the 
school should naturally mark the completion of this work. If 
it appears on acquaintance that a serious mistake has been 
made in estimating any of these elements, then, so soon as the 10 
mistake is fairly apparent and is probably a permanent condi- 
tion, the pupil should be requested to withdraw from the work. 
This is not a case where the wheat and the tares should grow 
together until the harvest at graduation day or the examination 
preceding it. With such a foundation continually maintained, 15 
it is the duty of the school to conquer success for each pupil. 

Teaching does not require genius. Indeed genius, in the 
sense of erratic ability, is out of place in the teacher's chair. 
Most good teachers at this close of the nineteenth century are 
made, not born ; made from good material well fashioned. 20 
There is, however, a possibility that some idiosyncrasy of char- 
acter, not readily discovered until the test is made, may rise 
between the prospective teacher and her pupils, making her 
influence over them small or harmful. Such a defect, if it 
exist, will appear during the practice-teaching, and the critic 25 
will discover it. This defect, on its first discovery, should be 
plainly pointed out to the teacher-in-training and her efforts 
should be joined with those of the critic in its removal. 

If this effort be a failure and the defect be one likely to 
liarm the pupils hereafter to be taught, then the teacher-in-30 
t'"aining should be informed and requested to withdraw from 
the school. There should be no test at the close of the school 
course to determine fitness for graduation. Graduation should 
find the teacher serious in view of her responsibilities, hopeful 
because she has learned how success is to be attained, inspired 35 
with the belief that growth in herself and in her pupils is the 
great demand and the great reward. 



34 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

TRAINING OF TEACHERS FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

Perhaps one-sixth of the great body of pubhc school 

teachers in the United States are engaged in secondary work 

and in supervision. These are the leading teachers. They 

give educational tone to communities, as well as inspiration to 

5 the body of teachers. 

It is of great importance that they be imbued with the pro- 
fessional spirit springing from sound professional culture. The 
very difficult and responsible positions that they fill demand 
ripe scholarship, more than ordinary ability, and an intimate 

lo knowledge of the period of adolescence, which Rousseau so 
aptly styles the second birth. 

The elementary schools provide for the education of the 
masses. Our secondary schools educate our social and busi- 
ness leaders. The careers of our college graduates who mainly 

15 fill the important places in professional and political life are 
determined largely by the years of secondary training. The 
college or university gives expansion and finish, the secondary 
school gives character and direction. 

It should not be forgotten that the superintendents of public 

20 schools are largely taken from the ranks of secondary teachers, 
and that the scholarship, qualities, and training required for 
the one class are nearly equivalent to that demanded for the 
other. 

Our high schools, too, are the source of supply for teachers 

25 in elementary schools. Hence the pedagogic influences ex- 
erted in the high school should lead to excellence in elemen- 
tary teaching. 

The superintendent who with long foresight looks to the 
improvement of his schools will labor earnestly to improve 

30 and especially to professionalize the teaching in his high 
school. The management which makes the high school an 
independent portion of the school system, merely attached 
and loftily superior, which limits the supervision and influence 
of the superintendent to the primary and grammar grades, is 

35 short-sighted and destructive. 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 35 

There ought also to be a place and a plan for the training 
of teachers for normal schools. The great body of normal 
and training schools in the United States are secondary- 
schools. Those who are to teach in these schools need broad 
scholarship, thorough understanding of educational problems, 5 
and trained experience. To put into these schools teachers 
whose scholarship is that of the secondary school and whose 
training is that of the elementary is to narrow and depress 
rather than broaden and elevate. 

If college graduates are put directly into teaching without 10 
special study and training, they will teach as they have been 
taught. The methods of college professors are not in all 
cases the best, and, if they were, high school pupils are not to 
be taught nor disciplined as college students are. High school 
teaching and discipline can be that neither of the grammar 15 
school nor of the college, but is siii generis. To recognize this 
truth and the special differences is vital to success. This 
recognition comes only from much experience at great loss 
and partial failure, or by happy intuition not usually to be 
expected, or by definite instruction and directed practice. 20 
Success in teaching depends upon conformity to principles, 
and these principles are not a part of the mental equipment of 
every educated person. 

These considerations and others are the occasion of a grow- 
ing conviction, widespread in this land, that secondary teachers 25 
should be trained for their work even more carefully than ele- 
mentary teachers are trained. This conviction is manifested 
in the efforts to secure normal schools adapted to training 
teachers for secondary schools, notably in Massachusetts and 
New York, and in the numerous professorships of pedagogy 30 
established in rapidly increasing numbers in our colleges and 
universities. 

The training of teachers for secondary schools is in several 
essential respects the same as that for teachers of elementary 
schools. Both demand scholarship, theory, and' practice. The 35 
degree of scholarship required for secondary teachers is by 
common consent fixed at a collegiate education. No one — 



36 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

with rare exceptions — should be employed to teach in a high 
school who has not this fundamental preparation. 

It is not necessary to enter in detail into the work of theo- 
retical instruction for secondary teachers. The able men at the 

5 head of institutions and departments designed for such Avork 
neither need nor desire advice upon this matter. And yet for 
the purposes of this report it may be allowable to point out a 
plan for the organization of a secondary training school. 

Let it be supposed that two essentials have been found in 

10 one locality, (i) a college or university having a department of 
pedagogy and a department of post-graduate work; (2) a high 
school, academy, or preparatory school whose managers are 
willing to employ and pay a number of graduate students to 
teach under direction for a portion of each day. These two 

15 conditions being met, we will suppose that pedagogy is offered 
as an elective to the college seniors. 

Two years of instruction in the science and art of teaching 
are to be provided ; one, mostly theory with some practice, 
elective during the senior year ; the other, mostly practice with 

20 some theory, elective for one year as post-graduate work. 
During the senior year is to be studied : 

THE SCIENCE OF TEACHING 

The elements of this science are : 

I. Psychology in its physiological, apperceptive, and experi- 
mental features. The period of adolescence here assumes the 
25 prominence that childhood has in the psychological study pre- 
paratory to teaching in lower schools. This is the period of 
beginnings, the beginning of a more ambitious and generous 
life, a life having the future wrapped up in it ; a transition 
period, of mental storm and stress, in which egoism gives way 
30 to altruism, romance has charm, and the social, moral, and 
religious feelings bud and bloom. To guide youth at this 
formative stage, in which an active fermentation occurs that 
may give wine or vinegar according to conditions, requires a 
deep and sympathetic nature, and that knowledge of the chang' 
35 ing life which supplies guidance wise and adequate. 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 37 

II. Methodology : a discussion of the principles of educa- 
tion and of the methods of teaching the studies of the sec- 
ondary schools. 

III. School Economy should be studied in a much wider 
and more thorough way than is required for elementary 5 
teachers. The school systems of Germany, France, England, 
and the leading systems of the United States should also be 
studied. 

IV. History of education, the tracing of modern doctrine 
back to its sources ; those streams of influence now flowing lo 
and those that have disappeared in the sands of the centuries. 

V. The philosophy of education as a division of an all- 
involving philosophy of life and thought in which unity is 
found. 

THE ART OF TEACHING 

This includes observation and practice. The observation 15 
should include the work of different grades and of different 
localities, with minute and searching comparison and reports 
upon special topics. How does excellent primary work differ 
from excellent grammar-grade work? How do the standards 
of excellence differ between grammar grades and high-school 20 
grades ? between high-school and college work ? What are the 
arguments for and against coeducation in secondary schools 
as determined by experience? What are the upper and lower 
limits of secondary education as determined by the nature of 
the pupil's effort ? 25 

In the college class in pedagogy much more than in the 
elementary normal school can the class itself be made to afford 
a means of practice to its members. Quizzes may be con- 
ducted by students upon the chapters of the books read or the 
lectures of the professors. These exercises may have for their 3P 
object review, or improved statement, or enlarged inference 
and application, and they afford an ample opportunity to 
cultivate the art of questioning, skill in which is the teacher's 
most essential accomplishment. 

The head of the department of pedagogy will of course 35 



. 38 RErORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

present the essential methods of teaching, and the heads of 
other departments may lecture on methods pertaining to their 
subject of study ; or secondary teachers of known success may 
still better present the methods now approved in the several 
5 departments of secondary work. 

POST-GRADUATE YEAR 

To those graduates who have elected pedagogy in their 
senior year may be offered the opportunity of further study in 
this department, with such other post-graduate work as taste 
and opportunity permit. From those selecting advanced 

lowork in pedagogy the board in charge of the afifiliated second- 
ary school should elect as many teachers for its school as are 
needed, employing them for two-thirds time at one-half the 
usual pay for teachers without experience. Under the pro- 
fessor of pedagogy of the college, the principal, and the heads 

15 of departments of the school these student-teachers should do 
their work, receiving advice, criticism, and illustration as occa- 
sion requires. The time for which they are employed would 
provide for two hours of class work and about one hour of 
clerical work or study while in charge of a schoolroom. These 

20 student-teachers should be given abundant opportunity for 
the charge of pupils while reciting or studying, at recess and 
dismissals, and should have all the responsibilities of members 
of the faculty of this ichool. Their work should be inspected 
as frequently as may be by the heads of the departments in 

25 which they teach, by the principal of the school, and by the 

professor of pedagogy. These appointments would be virtually 

fellowships with an opportunity for most profitable experience. 

In the afternoon of each day these students should at<-end 

to college work and especially to instruction from the pro- 

3ofessor in pedagogy, who could meet them occasionally with the 
heads of the departments under whose direction they are 
working. 

On Saturdays a seminary of two hours' duration might be held, 
conducted by the professor of pedagogy and attended by the 

35 student-teachers and the more ambitious teachers of experi 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 39 

ence in the vicinity. These seminaries would doubtless be of 
great profit to both classes of participants and the greater to 
each because of the other. [Such a training school for sec- 
ondary teachers in connection with Brown University and the 
Providence High School is contemplated for the coming year.] 5 

It will not be needful to specify further the advantages to 
the student-teachers. The arrangement likewise affords advan- 
tage to the affiliated school, especially in the breadth of view 
this work would afford to the heads of departments, the 
intense desire it would beget in them for professional skill, the 10 
number of perplexing problems which it would force them to 
attempt the solution of. 

The visits of the professor of pedagogy, and the constant 
comparison he would make between actual and ideal conditions, 
would lead him to seek the improvement not only of the stu-15 
dents in practice but of the school as a whole. 

When several earnest and capable people unite in a mutual 
effort to improve themselves and their work all the essential 
conditions of progress are present. 

Horace S. Tarbell, Chairman, 20 

Superintendent of Schools, Providence, R. I. 

Edward Brooks, 
Superintendent of Schools, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Thomas M. Balliet, 
Superintendent of Schools, Springfield, Mass. 25 

Newton C. Dougherty, 
Superintendent of Schools, Peoria, 111. 

Oscar H. Cooper, 
Superintendent of Schools, Galveston, Tex. 



II 

REPORT OF THE 

SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE CORRELATION OF 
STUDIES IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 

The undersigned Committee agrees upon the following 

report, each member reserving for himself the expression of 

his individual divergence from the opinion of the majority, 

by a statement appended to his signature, enumerating the 

5 points to which exception is taken and the grounds for them. 

I. CORRELATION OF STUDIES 

'Vour Committee understands by correlation of studies: 

/. Logical order of topics and brandies 

First, the arrangement of topics in proper sequence in the 
course of study, in such a manner that each branch develops in 
an order suited to the natural and easy progress of the child, 
loand so that each step is taken at the proper time to help his 
advance to the next step in the same branch, or to the next 
steps in other related branches of the course of study. 

2. Symmetrical zvhole of studies in the world of human 
learni^ig 

Second, the adjustment of the branches of study in such a 
manner that the whole course at any given time represents all 

15 the great divisions of human learning, as far as is possible at 
the stage of maturity at which the pupil has arrived, and that 
each allied group of studies is represented by some one of 
its branches best adapted for the epoch in question ; it being 
implied that there is an equivalence of studies to a greater or 

20 less degree within each group, and that each branch of human 

learning should be represented by some equivalent study; so 

that, while no great division is left unrepresented, no group 
40 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 4I 

shall have superfluous representatives and thereby debar 
other groups from a proper representation. 

J. Psychological symmetry — the zvhole mind 
Third, the selection and arrangement of the branches and 
topics within each branch considered psychologically with 
a view to afford the best exercise of the faculties of the 5 
mind, and to secure the unfolding of those faculties in their 
natural order, so that no one faculty is so overcultivated 
or so neglected as to produce abnormal or one-sided mental 
development. 

^. Correlation of pupil" s course of study with the zuorld in 
which he lives — his spiritual and natural environment 

Fourth and chiefly, your Committee understands by corre- 10 
lation of studies the selection and arrangement in orderly 
sequence of such objects of study as shall give the child an 
insight into the world that he lives in, and a command over its 
resources such as is obtained by a helpful co-operation with 
one's fellows. In a word, the chief consideration to which all 15 
others are to be subordinated, in the opinion of your Com- 
mittee, is this requirement of the civilization into which the 
child is born, as determining not only what he shall study in 
school, but what habits and customs he shall be taught in the 
family before the school age arrives; as well as that he shall 20 
acquire a skilled acquaintance with some one of a definite 
series of trades, professions, or vocations in the years that fol- 
low school ; and, furthermore, that this question of the relation 
of the pupil to his civilization determines what political duties 
he shall assume and what religious faith or spiritual aspirations 25 
shall be adopted for the conduct of his life. 

To make more clear their reasons for the preference here 
expressed for the objective and practical basis of selection of 
topics for the course of study, rather than the subjective basis 
so long favored by educational writers, your Committee would 30 
describe the psychological basis, already mentioned, as being 
merely formal in its character, relating only to the exercise of 
the so-called mental faculties. 



42 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

It would furnish a training of spiritual powers analogous to 
the gymnastic training of the muscles of the body. Gym- 
nastics may develop strength and agility without leading to 
any skill in trades or useful employment. So an abstract 
5 psychological training may develop the will, the intellect, the 
imagination, or the memory, but without leading to an exer- 
cise of acquired power in the interests of civilization. The 
game of chess would furnish a good course of study for the 
discipline of the powers of attention and calculation of abstract 

lo combinations, but it w^ould give its possessor little or no 
knowledge of man or nature. The psychological ideal which 
has prevailed to a large extent in education has in the old 
phrenology, and in the recent studies in physiological psy- 
chology, sometimes given place to a biological ideal. Instead 

15 of the view of mind as made up of faculties like will, intel- 
lect, imagination and emotion, conceived to be all necessary 
to the soul if developed in harmony with one another, the 
concept of nerves or brain-tracts is used as the ultimate regu- 
lative principle to determine the selection and arrangement of 

20 studies. Each part of the brain is supposed to have its claim 
on the attention of the educator, and that study is thought to 
be the most valuable which employs normally the larger num- 
ber of brain-tracts. This view reaches an extreme in the 
direction of formal as opposed to objective or practical grounds 

25 for selecting a course of study. While the old psychology with 
its mental faculties concentrated its attention on the mental 
processes and neglected the world of existing objects and rela- 
tions upon which those processes were directed, physiological, 
psychology tends to confine its attention to the physical part 

30 of the process, the organic changes in the brain cells and their 
functions. 

Your Committee is of the opinion that psychology of both 
kinds, physiological and introspective, can hold only a sub- 
ordinate place in the settlement of questions relating to the 

35 correlation of studies. The branches to be studied, and the 
extent to which they are studied, will be determined mainly 
by the demands of one's civilization. These will prescribe 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 43 

what is most useful to make the individual acquainted with 
physical nature and with human nature so as to fit him as an 
individual to perform his duties in the several institutions — 
family, civil society, the state, and the Church. But next after 
this, psychology will furnish important considerations that 5 
will largely determine the methods of instruction, the order of 
taking up the several topics so as to adapt the school work to 
the growth of the pupil's capacity, and the amount of work so 
as not to overtax his powers by too much or arrest the devel- 
opment of strength by too little. A vast number of subor- lo 
dinate details belonging to the pathology of education, such 
as the hygienic features of school architecture and furniture, 
programmes, the length of study hours and of class exercises, 
recreation, and bodily reactions against mental effort, will be 
finally settled by scientific experiment in the department of 15 
physiological psychology. 

Inasmuch as your Committee is limited to the consideration 
of the correlation of studies in the elementary school, it has 
considered the question of the course of study in general only 
in so far as this has been found necessary in discussing the 20 
grounds for the selection of studies for the period of school 
education occupying the eight years from six to fourteen years, 
or the school period between the kindergarten on the one hand 
and the secondary school on the other. It has not been pos- 
sible to avoid some inquiry into the true distinction between 25 
secondary and elementary studies, since one of the most impor- 
tant questions forced upon the attention of your Committee 
is that of the abridgment of the elementary course of study 
from eight or more years to seven or even six years, and the 
corresponding increase of the time devoted to studies usually 30 
assigned to the high school and supposed to belong to the 
secondary course of study for some intrinsic reason. 

II. THE COURSE OF STUDY — EDUCATIONAL VALUES 

Your Committee would report that it has discussed in de- 
tail the several branches of study that have found a place in 
the curriculum of the elementary school, with a view to dis-35 



44 RErORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

cover their educational value for developing and training the 

faculties of the mind, and more especially for correlating the 

pupil with his spiritual and natural environment in the world 

in which he lives. 

5 

A. Language studies 

There is first to be noted the prominent place of language 
study that takes the form of reading, penmanship, and 
grammar in the first eight years' work of the school. It is 
claimed for the partiality shown to these studies that it is 
justified by the fact that language is the instrument that makes 

lo possible human social organization. It enables each person to 
communicate his individual experience to his fellows and thus 
permits each to profit by the experience of all. The written 
and printed forms of speech preserve human knowledge and 
make progress in civilization possible. The conclusion is 

15 reached that learning to read and write should be the leading 
stud}^ of the pupil in his first four years of school. Reading 
and writing are not so much ends in themselves as means for 
the acquirement of all other human learning. This considera- 
tion alone would be sufficient to justify their actual place in 

20 the work of the elementary school. But these branches 
require of the learner a difficult process of analysis. The pupil 
must identify the separate words in the sentence he uses, and 
in the next place must recognize the separate sounds in each 
word. It requires a considerable effort for the child or the 

25 savage to analyze his sentence into its constituent words, and 
a still greater effort to discriminate its elementary sounds. 
Reading, writing, and spelling in their most elementary form, 
therefore, constitute a severe training in mental analysis for 
the child of six to ten years of age. We are told that it is far 

30 more disciplinary to the mind than any species of observation 
of differences among material things, because of the fact that 
the word has a twofold character — addressed to external sense 
as spoken sound to the ear, or as written and printed words 
to the eye — but containing a meaning or sense addressed to 

35 the understanding and only to be seized by introspection. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 45 

The Dupil must call up the corresponding idea by thought, 
memory, and imagination, or else the word will cease to be a 
word and remain only a sound or character. 

On the other hand, observation of things and movements 
does not necessarily involve this twofold act of analysis, intro- 5 
spective and objective, but only the latter — the objective 
analysis. It is granted that we all have frequent occasion to 
condemn poor methods of instruction as teaching words rather 
than things. But we admit that we mean empty sounds or 
characters rather than true words. Our suggestions for the 10 
correct method of teaching amount in this case simply to lay- 
ing stress on the meaning of the word, and to setting the 
teaching process on the road of analysis of content rather than 
form. In the case of words used to store up external observa- 
tion the teacher is told to repeat and make alive again the act 15 
of observation by which the word obtained its original mean- 
ing. In the case of a word expressing a relation between facts 
or events, the pupil is to be taken step by step through the 
process of reflection by which the idea was built up. Since 
the word, spoken and written, is the sole instrument by which 20 
reason can fix, preserve, and communicate both the data of 
sense and the relations discovered between them by reflec- 
tion, no new method in education has been able to supplant in 
the school the branches, reading and penmanship. But the 
real improvements in method have led teachers to lay greater 25 
and greater stress on the internal factor of the word, on its 
meaning, and have in manifold ways shown how to repeat the 
original experiences that gave the meaning to concrete words, 
and the original comparisons and logical deductions by which 
the ideas of relations and causal processes arose in the mind 30 
and required abstract words to preserve and communicate them. 

It has been claimed that it would be better to have first a 
basis of knowledge of things, and secondarily and subsequently 
a knowledge of words. But it has been replied to this, that 
the progress of the child in learning to talk indicates his ascent 35 
out of mere impressions into the possession of true knowledge. 
For he names objects only after he has made some synthesis 



46 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

of his impressions and has formed general ideas. He recog- 
nizes the same object under different circumstances of time 
and place, and also recognizes other objects belonging to the 
same class by and with names. Hence the use of the word 
5 indicates a higher degree of self-activity — the stage of mere 
impressions without words or signs being a comparatively pas- 
sive state of mind. What we mean by things first and words 
afterward, is therefore not the apprehension of objects by pas- 
sive impressions so much as the active investigation and ex- 

loperimenting which come after Avords are used and the higher 
forms of analysis are called into being by that invention of rea- 
son known as language, which, as before said, is a synthesis 
of thing and thought, of outward sign and inward signification. 
Rational investigation cannot precede the invention of lan- 

iSguage any more than blacksmithing can precede the invention 
of hammers, anvils, and pincers. For language is the neces- 
sary tool of thought used in the conduct of the analysis and 
synthesis of investigation. 

Your Committee would sum up these considerations by say- 

2oing that language rightfully forms the center of instruction in 
the elementary school, but that progress in methods of teach- 
ing is to be made, as hitherto, chiefly by laying more stress on 
the internal side of the word, its meaning; using better graded 
steps to build up the chain of experience or the train of 

25 thought that the word expresses. 

The first three years' work of the child is occupied mainly 
with the mastery of the printed and written forms of the 
words of his colloquial vocabulary; words that he is already- 
familiar enough with as sounds addressed to the ear. He has to 

30 become familiar with the new forms addressed to the eye, and it 
would be an unwise method to require him to learn many new 
words at the same time that he is learning to recognize his old 
words in their new shape. But as soon as he has acquired 
some facility in reading what is printed in the colloquial style, 

35 he may go on to selections from standard authors. The 
literary selections should be graded, and are graded in almost 
all series of readers used in our elementary schools, in such 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 47 

a way as to bring those containing the fewest words outside ■ 
of the colloquial vocabulary into the lower books of the series, 
and increasing the difficulties step by step as the pupil grows 
in maturity. The selections are literary works of art possess- 
ing the required organic unity and a proper reflection of this 5 
unity in the details, as good works of art must do. But they 
portray situations of the soul, or scenes of life, or elaborated 
reflections, of which the child can obtain some grasp through 
his capacity to feel and think, although in scope and com- 
pass they far surpass his range. They are adapted therefore to 10 
lead him out of and beyond himself, as spiritual guides. 

Literary style employs, besides words common to the collo- 
quial vocabulary, words used in a semi-technical sense expres- 
sive of fine shades of thought and emotion. The literary work 
of art furnishes a happy expression for some situation of the 15 
soul, or some train of reflection hitherto unutterable in an 
adequate manner. If the pupil learns this literary production, 
he finds himself powerfully helped to understand both himself 
and his fellow-men. The most practical knowledge of all, it 
will be admitted, is a knowledge of human nature — a knowl-20 
edge that enables one to combine with his fellow-men and to 
share with them the physical and spiritual wealth of the race. 
Of this high character as humanizing or civilizing, are the 
favorite works of literature found in the school readers, about 
one hundred and fifty English and American writers being 25 
drawn upon for the material. Such are Shakspere's speeches 
of Brutus and Mark Antony, Hamlet's and Macbeth's solilo- 
quies, Milton's L'Allegro and II Penseroso, Gray's Elegy, 
Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade and Ode on the 
Death of the Duke of Wellington, Byron's Waterloo, Irving's3o 
Rip Van Winkle, Webster's Reply to Hayne, The trial of 
Knapp, and Bunker Hill oration, Scott's Lochinvar, Marmion, 
and Roderick Dhu, Bryant's Thanatopsis, Longfellow's Psalm 
of Life, Paul Revere, and The Bridge, O'Hara's Bivouac of 
the Dead, Campbell's Hohenlinden, Collins' How Sleep the 35 
Brave, Wolfe's Burial of Sir John Moore, and other fine prose 
and poetry from Addison, Emerson, Franklin, The Bible, 



48 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

Hawthorne, Walter Scott, Goldsmith, Wordsworth, Swift, 
Milton, Cooper, Whittier, Lowell, and the rest. The read 
ing and study of fine selections in prose and verse furnish the 
chief aesthetic training of the elementary school. But this 
5 should be re-enforced by some study of photographic or other 
reproductions of the world's great masterpieces of architec- 
ture, sculpture, and painting. The frequent sight of these 
reproductions is good; the attempt to copy or sketch them 
with the pencil is better; best of all is an aesthetic lesson on 

lo their composition, attempting to describe in words the idea of 
the whole that gives the work its organic unity, and the 
devices adopted by the artist to reflect this idea in the details 
and re-enforce its strength. The aesthetic taste of teacher and 
pupil can be cultivated by such exercises, and once set on the 

15 road of development this taste may improve through life. 

A third phase of language study in the elementary school 
is formal grammar. The works of literary art in the readers, 
re-enforced as they ought to be by supplementary reading at 
home of the whole works from which the selections for the 

20 school readers are made, will educate the child in the use of a 
higher and better English style. Technical grammar never can 
do this. Only familiarity with fine English works will insure 
one a good and correct style. But grammar is the science of 
language, and as the first of the seven liberal arts it has long 

25 held sway in school as the disciplinary study par excellence. A 
survey of its educational value, subjective and objective, usually 
produces the conviction that it is to retain the first place in the 
future. Its chief objective advantage is that it shows the- 
structure of language, and the logical forms of subject, predi- 

3ocate, and modifier, thus revealing the essential nature of 
thought itself, the most important of all objects because it is 
self-object. On the subjective or psychological side, grammar 
demonstrates its title to the first place by its use as a disci- 
pline in subtle analysis, in logical division and classification, 

35 in the art of questioning, and in the mental accomplishment of 
making exact definitions. Nor is this an empty, formal disci- 
pline, for its subject matter, language, is a product of the 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 49 

reason of a people not as individuals but as a social whole, and 
the vocabulary holds in its store of words the generalized 
experience of that people, including sensuous observation and 
reflection, feeling and emotion, instinct and volition. 

No formal labor on a great objective field is ever lost wholly, 5 
since at the very least it has the merit of familiarizing the 
pupil with the contents of some one extensive province that 
borders on his life, and with which he must come into correla- 
tion ; but it is easy for any special formal discipline, when con- 
tinued too long, to paralyze or arrest growth at that stage. 15 
The overcultivation of the verbal memory tends to arrest the 
growth of critical attention and reflection. Memory of acces- 
sory details too, so much prized in the school, is also cultivated 
often at the expense of an insight into the organizing principle 
of the whole and the causal nexus that binds the parts. So 10 

• 

too the study of quantity, if carried to excess, may warp the 
mind into a habit of neglecting quality in its observation and 
reflection. As there is no subsumption in the quantitative 
judgment but only dead equality or inequality (A is equal to or 
greater or less than B), there is a tendency to atrophy in the fac- 20 
ulty of concrete syllogistic reasoning on the part of the person 
devoted exclusively to mathematics. For the normal syllogism 
usesjudgments wherein the subject is subsumed under the pred- 
icate (This is a rose — the individual rose is subsumed under 
the class rose; Socrates is a man, etc.). Such reasoning con-25 
cerns individuals in two aspects, first as concrete wholes and 
secondly as members of higher totalities or classes — species 
and genera. Thus, too, grammar, rich as it is in its contents, 
is only a formal discipline as respects the scientific, historic, or 
literary contents of language, and is indifferent to them. A 30 
training for four or five years in parsing and grammatical anal- 
ysis practiced on literary works of art (Milton, Shakspere, 
Tennyson, Scott) is a training of the pupil into habits of 
indifference toward and neglect of the genius displayed in the 
literary work of art, and into habits of impertinent and trifling 35 
attention to elements employed as material or texture, and a 
corresponding neglect of the structural form which alone is 



50 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

the work of the artist. A parallel to this would be the mason's 
habit of noticing only the brick and mortar, or the stone and 
cement, in his inspection of the architecture, say of Sir Chris- 
topher Wren. A child overtrained to analyze and classify 
5 shades of color — examples of this one finds occasionally in a 
primary school whose specialty is "objective teaching" — might 
in later life visit an art gallery and make an inventory of co'ors 
without getting even a glimpse of a painting as a work of art. 
Such overstudy and misuse of grammar as one finds in the 

lo elementary school, it is feared, exists to some extent in sec- 
ondary schools and even in colleges, in the work of mastering 
the classic authors. 

Your Committee is unanimous in the conviction that formal 
grammar should not be allowed to usurp the place of a 

15 study of the literary work of art in accordance with literary 
method. The child can be gradually trained to see the 
technical "motives" of a poem or prose work of art and to 
enjoy the aesthetic inventions of the artist. The analysis of a 
work of art should discover the idea that gives it organic unity; 

20 the collision and the complication resulting; the solution and 
dcno2icment. Of course these things must be reached in the 
elementary school without even a mention of their technical 
terms. The subject of the piece is brought out ; its reflection 
in the conditions of the time and place to heighten interest by 

25 showing its importance; its second and stronger reflection in 
the several details of its conflict and struggle; its reflection in 
the denouement wherein its struggle ends in victory or defeat 
and the ethical or rational interests are vindicated, — and the 
results move outward, returning to the environment again in 

30 ever-widening circles, — something resembling this is to be found 
in every work of art, and there are salient features which can 
be briefly but profitably made subject of comment in familiar 
language with even the youngest pupils. There is an ethical 
and an nssthetical content to each work of art. It is profitable 

35 to point out both of these in the interest of the child's growing 
insight into human nature. The ethical should, however, be 
kept in subordination to the aesthetical, but for the sake of the 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 5 1 

supreme interests of the ethical itself. Otherwise the study of 
a work of art degenerates into a goody-goody performance, 
and its effects on the child are to cause a reaction against the 
moral. The child protects his inner individuality against 
effacement through external authority by taking an attitude 5 
of rebellion against stories with an appended moral. Herein 
the superiority of the assthetical in literary art is to be seen. 
For the ethical motive is concealed by the poet, and the hero 
is painted with all his brittle individualism and self-seeking. His 
passions and his selfishness, gilded by fine traits of bravery and 10 
noble manners, interest the youth, interest us all. The estab- 
lished social and moral order seems to the ambitious hero to 
be an obstacle to the unfolding of the charms of individuality. 
The deed of violence gets done, and the Nemesis is aroused. 
Now his deed comes back on the individual doer, and our sym- 15 
pathy turns against him and we rejoice in his fall. Thus the 
sesthetical unity contains within it the ethical unity. The 
lesson of the great poet or novelist is taken. to heart, whereas 
the ethical announcement by itself might have failed, especially 
with the most self-active and aspiring of the pupils. Aristotle 20 
pointed out in his Poetics this advantage of the aesthetic unity, 
which Plato in his Republic seems to have missed. Tragedy 
purges us of our passions, to use Aristotle's expression, because 
we identify our own wrong inclinations with those of the hero, 
and by sympathy we suffer with him and see our intended deed 25 
returned upon us with tragic effect, and are thereby cured. 

Your Committee has dwelt upon the aesthetic side of liter- 
ature in this explicit manner because they believe that the 
general tendency in elementary schools is to neglect the 
literary art for the literary formalities which concern the 30 
mechanical material rather than the spiritual form. Those 
formal studies should not be discontinued, but subordinated to 
the higher study of literature. 

Your Committee reserves the subject of language lessons, 
composition writing, and what relates to the child's expression 35 
of ideas in writing, for consideration under Part 3 of this 
Report, treating of programme. 



52 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

B. AritJimetic 

Side by side with language study is the study of mathematics 
in the schools, claiming the second place in importance of all 
studies. It has been pointed out that mathematics concerns 
the laws of time and space — their structural form, so to speak — 
5 and hence that it formulates the logical conditions of all matter 
both in rest and in motion. Be this as it may, the high posi- 
tion of mathematics as the science of all quantity is universally 
acknowledged. The elementary branch of mathematics is arith- 
metic, and this is studied in the primary and grammar schools 

lo from six to eight years, or even longer. The relation of arith- 
metic to the whole field of mathematics has been stated (by 
Comte, Howison, and others) to be that of the final step in a 
process of calculation in Avhich results are stated numerically. 
There are branches that develop or derive quantitative func- 

15 tions: say geometry for spatial forms, and mechanics for move- 
ment and rest and the forces producing them. Other branches 
transform these quantitative functions into such forms as may 
be calculated in actual numbers ; namely, algebra in its common 
or lower form, and in its higher form as the differential and 

20 integral calculus, and the calculus of variations. Arithmetic 
evaluates or finds the numerical value for the functions thus 
deduced and transformed. The educational value of arith- 
metic is thus indicated both as concerns its psychological side 
and its objective practical uses in correlating man with the 

25 world of nature. In this latter respect as furnishing the key 
to the outer world in so far as the objects of the latter are a 
matter of direct enumeration, — capable of being counted, — it is 
the first great step in the conquest of nature. It is the first 
tool of thought that man invents in the work of emancipating 

30 himself from thraldom to external forces. For by the com- 
mand of number he learns to divide and conquer. He can 
proportion one force to another, and concentrate against an 
obstacle precisely what is needed to overcome it. Number also 
makes possible all the other sciences of nature which depend on 

35 exact measurement and exact record of phenomena as to the 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 53 

following items: order of succession, date, duration, locality, 
environment, extent of sphere of influence, number of mani- 
festations, number of cases of intermittence. All these can be 
defined accurately only by means of number. The educa- 
tional value of a branch of study that furnishes the indispen- 5 
sable first step toward all science of nature is obvious. But 
psychologically its importance further appears in this, that 
it begins with an important step in analysis; namely, the 
detachment of the idea of quantity from the concrete whole 
which includes quality as well as quantity. To count, one 10 
drops the qualitative and considers only the quantitative 
aspect. So long as the individual differences (which are quali- 
tative in so far as they distinguish one object from another) are 
considered, the objects cannot be counted together. When 
counted, the distinctions are dropped out of sight as indif-15 
ferent. As counting is the fundamental operation of arith- 
metic, and all other arithmetical operations are simply devices 
for speed by using remembered countings instead of going 
through the detailed work again each time, the hint is furnished 
the teacher for the first lessons in arithmetic. This hint 20 
has been generally followed out and the child set at work at 
first upon the counting of objects so much alike that the 
qualitative difference is not suggested to him. He constructs 
gradually his tables of addition, subtraction, and multiplica- 
tion, and fixes them in his memory. Then he takes his next 25 
higher step, namely the apprehension of the fraction. This is 
an expressed ratio of two numbers, and therefore a much more 
complex thought than he has met with in dealing with the 
simple numbers. In thinking five-sixths he first thinks five 
and then six, and holding these two in mind thinks the result 30 
of the first modified by the second. Here are three steps 
instead of one, and the result is not a simple number but an 
inference resting on an unperformed operation. This psycho- 
logical analysis shows the reason for the embarrassment of the 
child on his entrance upon the study of fractions and the other 35 
operations that imply ratio. The teacher finds all his resources 
in the way of method drawn upon to invent steps and half steps, 



54 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

to aid the pupil to make continuous progress here. All these 
devices of method consist in steps by which the pupil 
descends to the simple number and returns to the complex. 
He turns one of the terms into a qualitative unit and thus is 
5 enabled to use the other as a simple number. The pupil takes 
the denominator, for example, and makes clear his conception 
of one-sixth as his qualitative unit, then five-sixths is as clear 
to him as five oxen. But he has to repeat this return from 
ratio to simple numbers in each of the elementary operations — 

10 addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and in the 
reduction of fractions — and finds the road long and tedious at 
best. In the case of decimal fractions the psychological process 
is more complex still; for the pupil has given him one of the 
terms, the numerator, from which he must mentally deduce 

15 the denominator from the position of the decimal point. This 
doubles the work of reading and recognizing the fractional 
number. But it makes addition and subtraction of fractions 
nearly as easy as that of simple numbers and assists also in 
multiplication of fractions. But division of decimals is a 

20 much more complex operation than that of common fractions. 

The want of a psychological analysis of these processes has 

led many good teachers to attempt decimal fractions with 

their pupils before taking up common fractions. In the end 

they have been forced to make introductory steps to aid the 

25 pupil and in these steps to introduce the theory of the com- 
mon fraction. They have by this refuted their own theory. 

Besides {a) simple numbers and the four operations with 
them, {d) fractions common and decimal, there is {c) a third 
step in number, namely the theory of powers and roots. It is 

30a further step in ratio, namely the relation of a simple number 
to itself as power and root. The mass of material which fills 
the arithmetic used in the elementary school consists of two 
kinds of examples, first, those wherein there is a direct appli- 
cation of simple numbers, fractions, and powers, and secondly 

35 the class of examples involving operations in reaching numer- 
ical solutions through indirect data and consequently involv- 
ing more or less transformation of functions. Of this charac.ter 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 55 

is most of the so-called higher arithmetic and such problems 
in the text-book used in the elementary schools as have, not 
inappropriately, been called (by General Francis A. Walker in 
his criticism on common-school arithmetic) numerical "conun- 
drums." Their difficulty is not found in the strictly arith- 5 
metical part of the process of the solution (the third phase 
above described), but rather in the transformation of the quan- 
titative function given into the function that can readily be 
calculated numerically. The transformation of functions 
belongs strictly to algebra. Teachers who love arithmetic, lo 
and who have themselves success in working out the so-called 
numerical conundrums, defend with much earnestness the cur- 
rent practice which uses so much time for arithmetic. They 
see in it a valuable training for ingenuity and logical analysis, 
and believe that the industry which discovers arithmetical 15 
ways of transforming the functions given in such problems 
into plain numerical operations of adding, subtracting, multi- 
plying, or dividing is well bestowed. On the other hand the 
critics of this practice contend that there should be no merely 
formal drill in school for its own sake, and that there should 20 
be, always, a substantial content to be gained. They contend 
that the work of the pupil in transforming quantitative func- 
tions by arithmetical methods is wasted, because the pupil 
needs a more adequate expression than number for this pur- 
pose ; that this has been discovered in algebra, which enables 25 
him to perform with ease such quantitative transformations 
as puzzle the pupil in arithmetic. They hold, therefore, 
that arithmetic pure and simple should be abridged and 
elementary algebra introduced after the numerical operations 
in powers, fractions, and simple numbers have been mastered, 30 
together with their applications to the tables of weights and 
measures and to percentage and interest. In the seventh year 
of the elementary course there would be taught equations of 
the first degree and the solution of arithmetical problems that 
fall under proportion or the so-called "rule of three," together 35 
with other problems containing complicated conditions — those 
in partnership for example. In the eighth year quadratic 



56 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

equations could be learned, and other problems of higher arith- 
metic solved in a more satisfactory manner than by numerical 
methods. It is contended that this earlier introduction of 
algebra, with a sparing use of letters for known quantities, 
5 would secure far more mathematical progress than is obtained 
at present on the part of all pupils, and that it would enable 
many pupils to go on into secondary and higher education 
who are now kept back on the plea of lack of preparation in 
arithmetic, the real diiThculty in many cases being a lack of 

lo ability to solve algebraic problems by an inferior method. 

Your Committee would report that the practice of teaching 
two lessons daily in arithmetic, one styled "mental" or "intel- 
lectual" and the other "written" arithmetic (because its exer- 
cises are written out with pencil or pen) is still continued in 

15 many schools. By this device the pupil is made to give twice 
as much time to arithmetic as to any other branch. It is con- 
tended by the opponents of this practice, with some show of 
reason, that two lessons a day in the study of quantity have a 
tendency to give the mind a bent or set in the direction of 

20 thinking quantitatively with a corresponding neglect of the 
power to observe, and to reflect upon, qualitative and causal 
aspects. For mathematics does not take account of causes, 
but only of equality and difTerence in magnitude. It is fur- 
ther objected that the attempt to secure what is called thor- 

25oughness in the branches taught in the elementary schools is 
often carried too far, in fact, to such an extent as to produce 
arrested development (a sort of mental paralysis) in the 
mechanical and formal stages of growth. The mind in that 
case loses its appetite for higher methods and wider general- 

Soizations. The law of apperception, we are told, proves that 
temporary methods of solving problems should not be so thor- 
oughly mastered as to be used involuntarily or as a matter of 
unconscious habit, for the reason that a higher and a more 
adequate method of solution will then be found more difficult 

35 to acquire. The more thoroughly a method is learned, the 
more it becomes part of the mind and the greater the repug- 
nance of the mind toward a new method. For this reason 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 57 

parents and teachers discourage young children from the prac- 
tice of counting on the fingers, beheving that it will cause 
much trouble later to root out this vicious habit and replace 
it by purely mental processes. Teachers should be careful, 
especially with precocious children, not to continue too long 5 
in the use of a process that is becoming mechanical; for it is 
already growing into a second nature, and becoming a part of 
the unconscious apperceptive process by which the mind reacts 
against the environment, recognizes its presence, and explains 
it to itself. The child that has been overtrained in arithmetic 10 
reacts apperceptively against his environment chiefly by notic- 
ing its numerical relations — he counts and adds; his other 
apperceptive reactions being feeble, he neglects qualities and 
causal relations. Another child who has been drilled in recog- 
nizing colors apperceives the shades of color to the neglect of 15 
all else. A third child, excessively trained in form studies by 
the constant use of geometric solids and much practice in 
looking for the fundamental geometric forms lying at the 
basis of the multifarious objects that exist in the world, will as 
a matter of course apperceive geometric forms, ignoring the 20 
other phases of objects. 

It is, certainly, an advance on immediate sense-perception to 
be able to separate or analyze the concrete, whole impression, 
and consider the quantity apart by itself. But if arrested 
mental growth takes place here the result is deplorable. That 25 
such arrest may be caused by too exclusive training in recog- 
nizing numerical relations is beyond a doubt. 

Your Committee believes that, with the right methods, 
and a wise use of time in preparing the arithmetic lesson 
in and out of school, five years are sufificient for the study 30 
of mere arithmetic — the five years beginning with the sec- 
ond school year and ending with the close of the sixth year; 
and that the seventh and eighth years should be given to the 
algebraic method of dealing with those probleins that involve 
difficulties in the transformation of quantitative indirect func-35 
tions into numerical or direct quantitative data. 

Your Committee, however, does not wish to be understood 



58 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

as rcconinicncHng the transfer of algebra, as it is understood 
and taught in most secondary schools, to the seventh year or 
even to the eighth year of the elementary school. The algebra 
course in the secondary school, as taught to pupils in their 
Sfiftecntii year of age, very properly begins with severe exer- 
cises with a view to discipline the pupil in analyzing complex 
literate expressions at sight and to make him able to recognize 
at once the factors that arc contained in such combinations of 
quantities. The proposed seventh-grade algebra must use 

lo letters for the unknown quantities and retain the numerical 
form of the known quantities, using letters for these very 
rarely, except to exhibit the general form of solution or what, 
if stated in words, becomes a so-called "rule" in arithmetic. 
This species of algebra has the character of an introduction or 

15 transitional step to algebra proper. The latter should be 
taught thoroughly in the secondary school. Formerly it was 
a common practice to teach elementary algebra of this sort in 
the preparatory schools and reserve for the college a study of 
algebra proper. But in this case there was often a neglect of 

20 sufficient practice in factoring literate quantities, and as a conse- 
quence the pupil suffered embarrassment in his more advanced 
mathematics, for example in analytical geometry, the differ- 
ential calculus, and mechanics. The proposition of your 
Committee is intended to remedy the two evils already 

25 named : first to aid the pupils in the elementary school to 
solve, by a higher method, the more difficult problems that 
now find place in advanced arithmetic; and secondly, to pre- 
pare the pupil for a thorough course in pure algebra in the 
secondary school. 

30 Your Committee is of the opinion that the so-called mental 
arithmetic should be made to alternate with written arithmetic 
for two years and that there should not be two daily lessons 
in this subject. 

C. Geography 

The leading branch of the seven liberal arts was grammar, 
35 being the first of the Triviuni (grammar, rhetoric, and logic). 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 59 

Arithmetic, however, led the second division, the Qiiadri- 
viuvi (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). We have 
glanced at the reasons for the place of grammar as leading 
the humane studies as well as for the place of arithmetic as 
leading the nature studies. Following arithmetic as the second 5 
study in importance among the branches that correlate man to 
nature is geography. It is interesting to note that the old 
quadrivium of the Middle Ages included geography, under the 
title of geometry, as the branch following arithmetic in the enu- 
meration ; the subject matter of their so-called "geometry"being lo 
chiefly an abridgment of Pliny's geography, to which were 
added a few definitions of geometric forms, something like the 
primary course in geometric solids in our elementary schools. 
So long as there has been elementary education there has been 
something of geography included. The Greek education laid 15 
stress on teaching the second book of Homer containing the 
Catalogue of the Ships and a brief mention of the geography 
and history of all the Greek tribes that took part in the Trojan 
War. History remains unseparated from geography and 
geometry in the Middle Ages. Geography has preserved this 20 
comprehensiveness of meaning as a branch of the study in the 
elementary schools down to the present day. After arith- 
metic, which treats of the abstract or general conditions of 
material existence, comes geography with a practical study of 
man's material habitat 2ind its relations to him. It is not a 25 
simple science by itself, like botany or geology or astronomy, 
but a collection of sciences levied upon to describe the earth as 
the dwelling place of man and to explain something of its more 
prominent features. About one-fourth of the material relates 
strictly to the geography, about one-half to the inhabitants, 30 
their manners, customs, institutions, industries, productions, 
and the remaining one-fourth to items drawn from the sciences 
of mineralogy, meteorology, botany, zoology, and astronomy. 
This predominance of the human feature in a study ostensibly 
relating to physical nature, your Committee considers necessary 35 
and entirely justifiable. The child commences with what is 
nearest to his interests, and proceeds gradually toward what is 



6o REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

remote and to be studied for its own sake. It is therefore a 
mistake to suppose that the first phase of geography presented 
to the child should be the process of continent formation. He 
must begin with the natural differences of climate and lands 
sand waters and obstacles that separate peoples, and study the 
methods by which man strives to equalize or overcome these 
differences by industry and commerce, to unite all places and all 
people, and make it possible for each to share in the productions 
of all. The industrial and commercial idea is therefore the 

10 first central idea in the study of geography in the elementary 
schools. It leads directly to the natural elements of difference 
in climate, soil, and productions, and also to those in race, 
religion, political status, and occupations of the inhabitants, 
with a view to explain the grounds and reasons for this 

15 counter-process of civilization which struggles to overcome the 
differences. Next comes the deeper inquiry into the process 
of continent formation, the physical struggle between the 
process of upheaving or upbuilding of continents and that of 
their obliteration by air and water; the explanation of the 

20 mountains, valleys, and plains, the islands, volcanic action, the 
winds, the rain-distribution. But the study of cities, their 
location, the purposes they serve as collecting, manufacturing, 
and distributing centers, leads most directly to the immediate 
purpose of geography in the elementary school. From this 

25 beginning, and holding to it as a permanent interest, the 
inquiry into causes and conditions proceeds concentrically to 
the sources of the raw materials, the methods of their produc- 
tion and the climatic, geologic, and other reasons that explain 
their location and their growth. 

30 In recent years, especially through the scientific study of 
physical geography, the processes that go to the formation of 
climate, soil, and general configuration of land masses have 
been accurately determined, and the methods of teaching so 
simplified that it is possible to lead out from the central idea 

35 mentioned to the physical explanations of the elements of 
geographical difference quite early in the course of study. 
Setting out from the idea of the use made of the earth by 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 6l 

civilization, the pupil in the fifth and sixth years of his schooling 
(at the age of eleven or twelve) may extend his inquiries quite 
profitably as far as the physical explanations of land-shapes 
and climates. In the seventh and eighth year of school much 
more may be done in this direction. But it is believed that 5 
the distinctively human interest connected with geography in 
the first years of its study should not yield to the purely 
scientific one of physical processes until the pupil has taken 
up the study of history. 

The educational value of geography, as it is and has been in 10 
elementary schools, is obviously very great. It makes possible 
something like accuracy in the picturing of distant places and 
events and removes a large tract of mere superstition from 
the mind. In the days of newspaper reading one's stock of 
geographical information is in constant requisition. A war on 15 
the opposite side of the globe is followed with more interest 
in this year than a war near our own borders before the era of 
the telegraph. The general knowledge of the locations and 
boundaries of nations, of their status in civilization and their 
natural advantages for contributing to the world market, is 20 
of great use to the citizen in forming correct ideas from his 
daily reading. 

The educational value of geography is even more apparent 
if we admit the claims of those who argue that the present 
epoch is the beginning of an era in which public opinion 1325 
organized into a ruling force by the agency of periodicals and 
books. Certainly neither the newspaper nor the book can 
influence an illiterate people: they can do little to form 
opinions where the readers have no knowledge of geography. 

As to the psychological value of geography little need be 30 
said. It exercises in manifold ways the memory of forms and 
the imagination ; it brings into exercise the thinking power in 
tracing back toward unity the various series of causes. What 
educative value there is in geology, meteorology, zoolog}', 
ethnology, economics, history, and politics is to be found in 35 
the more profound study of geography, and, to a proportionate 
extent, in the study of its merest elements. 



62 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

Your Committee is of the opinion that there has been a 
vast improvement in the methods of instruction in this branch 
in recent years, due in large measure to the geographical soci- 
eties of this and other countries. At first there prevailed 
5 what might be named sailor geography. The pupil was com- 
pelled to memorize all the capes and headlands, bays and har- 
bors, mouths of rivers, islands, sounds, and straits around the 
world. He enlivened this to some extent by brief mention of 
the curiosities and oddities in the way of cataracts, water-gaps, 

!o caves, strange animals, public buildings, picturesque costumes, 
national exaggerations, and such matters as would furnish 
good themes for sailors' yarns. Little or nothing was taught to 
give unity to the isolated details furnished in endless number. 
It was an improvement on this when the method of memoriz- 

iSing capital cities and political boundaries succeeded. With 
this came the era of map drawing. The study of watersheds 
and commercial routes, of industrial productions and centers 
of manufacture and commerce, has been adopted in the better 
class of schools. Instruction in geography is growing better 

20 by the constant introduction of new devices to make plain 
and intelligible the determining influence of physical causes in 
producing the elements of difference and the counter-process 
of industry and commerce by which each difference is rendered 
of use to the whole world and each locality made a partici- 

25 pator in the productions of all. 

D. History 

The next study, ranked in order of value, for the elementary 
school is History. But, as will be seen, the value of history, 
both practically and psychologically, is less in the beginning 
and greater at the end than geography. For it relates to the 

30 institutions of men, and especially to the political state and its 
evolution. While biography narrates the career of the indi- 
vidual, civil history records the careers of nations. The 
nation has been compared to the individual by persons inter- 
ested in the educational value of history. Man has two selves, 

35 they say, the individual self, and the collective self of the 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 63 

organized state" or nation. The study of history is, then, the 
study of this larger, corporate, social, and civil self. The 
importance of this idea is thus brought out more clearly in its 
educational significance. For to learn this civil self is to learn 
the substantial condition which makes possible the existence 5 
of civilized man in all his other social combinations — the 
family, the Church, and the manifold associated activities of 
civil society. For the state protects these combinations from 
destruction by violence. It defines the limits of individual 
and associated efTort, within which each endeavor re-enforces 10 
the endeavors of all, and it uses the strength of the whole 
nation to prevent such actions as pass beyond these safe 
limits and tend to collision with the normal action of the other 
individuals and social units. Hobbes called the state a Levi- 
athan, to emphasize its stupendous individuality and organized 15 
self-activity. Without this, he said, man lives in a state of 
"constant war, fear, poverty, filth, ignorance, and wretched- 
ness; within the state dwell peace, security, riches, science, 
and happiness." The state is the collective man who "makes 
possible the rational development of the individual man, like 20 
a mortal God, subduing his caprice and passion and compelling 
obedience to law, developing the ideas of justice, virtue, and 
religion, creating property and ownership, nurture and educa- 
tion." The education of the child into a knowledge of this 
higher self begins early within the nurture of the family. 25 
The child sees a policeman or some town officer, some public 
building, a court house or a jail; he sees or. hears of an act of 
violence, a case of robbery or murder followed by arrest of the 
guilty. The omnipresent higher self, which has been invisible 
hitherto, now becomes visible to him in its symbols and still 30 
more in its acts. 

History in school, it is contended, should be the special 
branch for education in the duties of citizenship. There is 
ground for this claim. History gives a sense of belonging 
to a higher social unity which possesses the right of absolute 35 
control over person and property in the interest of the safety 
of the whole. This, of course, is the basis of citizenship; the 



64 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

individual must feel this or see this solidarity of the state and 
recognize its supreme authority. But history shows the colli- 
sions of nations, and the victory of one political ideal accom- 
panied by the defeat of another. History reveals an evolution 
5 of forms of government that are better and better adapted to 
permit individual freedom, and the participation of all citizens 
in the administration of the government itself. 

People who make their own government have a special 
interest in the spectacle of political evolution as exhibited in 

lo history. But it must be admitted that this evolution has not 
been well presented by popular historians. Take, for instance, 
the familiar example of old-time pedagogy, wherein the Roman 
republic was conceived as a freer government than the Roman 
empire that followed it, by persons apparently misled by 

15 the ideas of representative self-government associated with the 
word republic. It was the beginning of a new epoch when this 
illusion was dispelled, and the college student became aware 
of the true Roman meaning of republic, namely, the supremacy 
of an oligarchy on the Tiber that ruled distant provinces in 

20 Spain, Gaul, Asia Minor, Germany, and Africa, for its selfish 
ends and with an ever-increasing arrogance. The people at 
home in Rome, not having a share in the campaigns on the 
borderland, did not appreciate the qualities of the great leaders 
who, like Cxsar, subdued the nations by forbearance, mag- 

25 nanimity, trust, and the recognition of a sphere of freedom 
secured to the conquered by the Roman civil laws, which were 
rigidly enforced by. the conqueror, as much as by the violence of 
arms. The change from republic to empire meant the final sub- 
ordination of this tyrannical Roman oligarchy, and the recog- 

3onition of the rights of the provinces to Roman freedom. This 
illustration shows how easily a poor teaching of history may 
pervert its good influence or purpose into a bad one. For the 
Roman monarchy under the empire secured a degree of freedom 
never before attained under the republic, in spite of the election 

35 of such tyrants as Nero and Caligula to the imperial purple. 
The civil service went on as usual administering the affairs of 
distant countries, educating them in Roman jurisprudence, and 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 65 

cultivating a love for accumulating private property. Those 
countries had before lived communistically after the style of 
the tribe or at best of the village community. Roman private 
property in land gave an impulse to the development of free 
individuality such as had always been impossible under the 5 
social stage of development known as the village community. 

To teach history properly is to dispel this shallow illusion 
which flatters individualism, and to open the eyes of the pupil 
to the true nature of freedom, namely the freedom through 
obedience to just laws enforced by a strong government. 10 

Your Committee has made this apparent digression for the 
sake of a more explicit statement of its conviction of the 
importance of teaching history in a different spirit from that 
of abstract freedom, which sometimes means anarchy, although 
they admit the possibility of an opposite extreme, the danger 15 
of too little stress on the progressive element in the growth 
of nations and its manifestation in new and better political 
devices for representing all citizens without weakening the 
central power. 

That the history of one's own nation is to be taught in the 20 
elementary school seems fixed by common consent. United 
States history includes first a sketch of the epoch of discoveries 
and next of the epoch of colonization. This fortunately suits 
the pedagogic requirements. For the child loves to approach 
the stern realities of a firmly established civilization through 25 
its stages of growth by means of individual enterprise. Here 
is the use of biography as introduction to history. It treats 
of exceptional individuals whose lives bring them in one way or 
another into national or even world-historical relations. They 
throw light on the nature and necessity of governments, and 30 
are-in turn illuminated by the light thrown back on them by 
the institutions which they promote or hinder. The era of 
semi-private adventure with which American history begins is 
admirably adapted for study by the pupil in the elementary 
stage of his education. So too the next epoch, that of coloni-35 
zation. The pioneer is a degree nearer to civilization than is 
the explorer and discoverer. In the colonial history the puoil 



66 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

interests himself in the enterprise of aspiring individualities, in 
their conquest over obstacles of climate and soil; their con- 
flicts with the aboriginal population; their choice of land for 
settlement; the growth of their cities; above all, their several 
5 attempts and final success in forming a constitution securing 
local self-government. An epoch of growing interrelation of 
the colonies succeeds, a tendency to union on a large scale 
due to the efTect of European wars which involved England, 
France, and other countries, and affected the relations of their 

lo colonies in America. This epoch too abounds in heroic per- 
sonalities, like Wolfe, Montcalm, and Washington, and perilous 
adventures, especially in the Indian warfare. 

The fourth epoch is the Revolution, by which the Colonies 
through joint effort secured their independence and afterward 

15 their union in a nation. The subject grows rapidly more com- 
plex and tasks severely the powers of the pupils in the eighth 
year of the elementary school. The formation of the Consti- 
tution, and a brief study of the salient features of the Con- 
stitution itself, conclude the study of the portion of the 

20 history of the United States that is sufficiently remote to 
be treated after the manner of an educational classic. Every- 
thing up to this point stands out in strong individual out- 
lines and is admirably fitted for that elementary course of 
study. Beyond this point, the War of 1812 and the War of 

25 the Rebellion, together with the political events that led to it, 
are matters of memory with the present generation of parents 
and grandparents, and are consequently not so well fitted for 
intensive study in school as the already classic period of our 
history. But these later and latest epochs may be and will be 

30 read at home not only in the text-book on history used in the 
schools, but also in the numerous sketches that appear in news- 
papers, magazines, and in more pretentious shapes. In the 
intensive study which should be undertaken of the classic 
period of our history, the pupil may be taught the method 

35 appropriate to historical investigation, the many points of view 
from which each event ought to be considered. He should 
learn to discriminate between the theatrical show of events and 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 6/ 

the solid influences that move underneath as ethical causes. 
Although he is too immature for very far-reaching reflections, 
he must be helped to see the causal processes of history. 
Armed with this discipline in historic methods, the pupil will 
do all of his miscellaneous reading and thinking in this province S 
with more adequate intellectual reaction than was possible 
before the intensive study carried on in school. 

The study of the outlines of the Constitution, for ten or 
fifteen weeks in the final year of the elementary school, has 
been found of great educational value. Properly taught, it lo 
fixes the idea of the essential threefoldness of the constitution 
of a free government and the necessary independence of each 
constituent power, whether legislative, judicial, or executive. 
This and some idea of the manner and mode of filling the 
official places in these three departments, and of the character 15 
of the duties with which each department is charged, lay foun- 
dations for an intelligent citizenship. 

Besides this intensive study of the history of the United 
States in the seventh and eighth years, your Committee would 
recommend oral lessons on the salient points of general history, 20 
taking a full hour of sixty minutes weekly — and preferably all 
at one time — for the sake of the more systematic treatment of 
the subject of the lesson and the deeper impression made on 
the mind of the pupil. 

E. OtJicr branches 

Your Committee has reviewed the staple branches of the 25 
elementary course of study in the light of their educational 
scope and significance. Grammar, literature, arithmetic, geog- 
raphy, and history are the five branches upon which the dis- 
ciplinary work of the elementary school is concentrated. Inas- 
much as reading is the first of the scholastic arts, it is interesting 30 
to note that the whole elementary course may be described as 
an extension of the process of learning the art of reading. 
First comes the mastering of the colloquial vocabulary in printed 
and script forms. Next come five incursions into the special 
vocabularies required {a) in literature to express the fine shades 35 



68 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

of emotion and the more subtle distinctions of thought, (/') the 
technique of arithmetic, (r) cf geography, {d) of grammar, {c) 
of history. 

In the serious work of mastering these several technical 
5 vocabularies the pupil is assigned daily tasks that he must pre- 
pare by independent study. The class exercise or recitation is 
taken up with examining and criticising the pupil's oral state- 
ments of what he has learned, especial care being taken to 
secure the pupil's explanation of it in his own words. This 

lo requires paraphrases and definitions of the new words and 
phrases used in technical and literary senses, with a view to 
insure the addition to the mind of the new ideas corresponding 
to the new words. The misunderstandings are corrected and 
the pupil set on the way to use more critical alertness in the 

15 preparation of his succeeding lessons. The pupil learns as 
much by the recitations of his fellow-pupils as he learns from 
the teacher, but not the same things. He sees in the imperfect 
statements of his classmates that they apprehended the lesson 
with different presuppositions and consequently have seen 

20 some phases of the subject that escaped his observation, Avhile 
they in turn have missed points which he had noticed quite 
readily. These different points of view become more or less 
his own, and he may be said to grow by adding to his own 
mind the minds of others. 

25 It is clear that there are other branches of instruction that 
may lay claim to a place in the course of study of the elemen- 
tary school ; for example the various branches of natural science, 
vocal music, manual training, physical culture, drawing, etc. 
Here the question of another method of instruction is sug- 

Sogested. There are lessons that require previous preparation 
by the pupil himself — there are also lessons that may be 
taken up without such preparation and conducted by the teacher, 
who leads the exercise and furnishes a large part of the informa- 
tion to be learned, enlisting the aid of members of the class for 

35 the purpose of bringing home the new material to theiractual ex- 
perience. Besides these there are mechanical exercises for pur- 
poses of training, such as drawing, penmanship, and calisthenics. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 69 

In the first place there is industrial and sesthetic drawing, 
which should have a place in all elementary school work. By 
it is secured the training of the hand and eye. Then, too, 
drawing helps in all the other branches that require illustra- 
tion. Moreover, if used in the study of the great works of art 5 
in the way hereinbefore mentioned, it helps to cultivate the 
taste and prepares the future workman for a more useful and 
lucrative career, inasmuch as superior taste commands higher 
wages in the finishing of all goods. 

'Natural science claims a place in the elementary school not 10 
so much as a disciplinary study side by side with grammar, 
arithmetic, and history, as a training in habits of observation 
and in the use of the technique by which such sciences are 
expounded. With a knowledge of the technical terms and 
some training in the methods of original investigation employed 15 
in the sciences, the pupil broadens his views of the world and 
greatly increases his capacity to acquire new knowledge. For 
the pupil who is unacquainted with the technique of science 
has to pass without mental profit the numerous scientific 
allusions and items of information which more and more 20 
abound in all our literature, whether of an ephemeral or a 
permanent character. In an age whose proudest boast is the 
progress of science in all domains, there should be in the 
elementary school, from the first, a course in the elements of 
the sciences. And this is quite possible; for each science 25 
possesses some phases that lie very near to the child's life. 
These familiar topics furnish the doors through which the child 
enters the various special departments. Science, it is claimed, 
is nothing if not systematic. Indeed, science itself may be 
defined as the interpretation of each fact through all other 30 
facts of a kindred nature. Admitting that this is so, it is no 
less true that pedagogic method begins with the fragmentary 
knowledge possessed by the pupil and proceeds to organize it 
and build it out systematically in all directions. Hence any 
science may be taken up best on the side nearest the experience 35 
of the pupil and the investigation continued until the other 
parts are reached. Thus the pedagogical order is not always 



70 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

the logical or scientific order. In this respect it agrees with 
the order of discovery, which is usually something quite 
different from the logical order, for that is the last thing dis- 
covered. The natural sciences have two general divisions: one 
5 relating to inorganic matter, as physics and chemistry, and one 
relating to organic, as botany and zoology. There should be a 
spiral course in natural science, commencing each branch with 
the most interesting phases to the child. A first course 
should be given in botany, zoology, and physics, so as to treat 

loof the structure and uses of familiar plants and animals, and 
the explanation of physical phenomena as seen in the child's 
playthings, domestic machines, etc. A second course covering 
the same subjects, but laying more stress on classification and 
functions, will build on to the knowledge already acquired from 

15 the former lessons and from his recently acquired experience. 
A third course of w^eekly lessons, conducted by the teacher as 
before in a conversational style, with experiments and with a 
comparison of the facts of observation already in the possession 
of the children,will go far to helping them to an acquisition of the 

20 results of natural science. Those of the children specially gifted 

for observation in some one or more departments of nature will 

be stimulated and encouraged to make the most of their gifts. 

In the opinion of your Committee there should be set apart 

a full hour each week for drawing and the same amount for 

25 oral lessons in natural science. 

The oral lessons in history have already been mentioned. 
The spiral course, found useful in natural science because of 
the rapid change in capacity of comprehension by the pupil 
from his sixth to his fourteenth year, will also be best for the 

30 history course, which will begin with biographical adventures 
of interest to the child, and possessing an important historical 
bearing. These will proceed from the native land first to Eng- 
land, the parent country, and then to the classic civilizations 
(Greece and Rome being, so to speak, the grandparent coun- 

35 tries of the American colonies). These successive courses of 
oral lessons adapted respectively to the child's capacity will do 
much to make the child well informed on this topic. Oral 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 7I 

lessons should never be mere lectures, but more like Socratic 
dialogues, building up a systematic knowledge partly from 
what is already known, partly by new investigations, and partly 
by comparison of authorities. 

The best argument in favor of weekly oral lessons in natural 5 
science and general history is the actual experiences of teachers 
who have for some time used the plan. It has been found 
that the lessons in botany, zoology, and physics give the pupil 
much aid in learning his geography and other lessons relating 
to nature, while the history lessons assist very much his com- 10 
prehension of literature, and add interest to geography. 

It is understood by your Committee that the lessons in 
physiology and hygiene (with special reference to the effects 
of stimulants and narcotics) required by State laws should 
be included in this oral course in natural science. Manual 15 
training, so far as the theory and use of the tools for working 
in wood and iron are concerned, has just claims on the elemen- 
tary school for a reason similar to that which admits natural 
science. From science have proceeded useful inventions for 
the aid of all manner of manufactures and transportation. 20 
The child of to-day lives in a world where machinery is con- 
stantly at his hand. A course of training in wood- and iron- 
work, together with experimental knowledge of physics or 
natural philosophy, makes it easy for him to learn tlie manage- 
ment of such machines. Sewing and cookery have not the 25 
same but stronger claims for a place in school. One-half day 
in each week for one-half a year each in the seventh and eighth 
grades will suffice for manual training, the sewing and cookery 
being studied by the girls, and the wood- and iron-work by the 
boys. It should be mentioned, however, that the advocates 30 
of manual training in iron-and wood-work recommend these 
branches for secondary schools, because of the greater maturity 
of body, and the less likelihood to acquire wrong habits of 
manipulation, in the third period of four years of school. 

Vocal music has long since obtained a well-established place 35 
in all elementary schools. The labors of two generations of 
special teachers have reduced the steps of instruction to such 



72 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

simplicity that whole classes may make as regular progress in 
reading music as in reading literature. 

In regard to physical culture your Committee is agreed 
that there should be some form of special daily exercises 
5 amounting in the aggregate to one hour each week, the same to 
include the main features of calisthenics, and German, Swedish, 
or American systems of physical training, but not to be 
regarded as a substitute for the old-fashioned recess estab- 
lished to permit the free exercise of the pupils in the open air. 

10 Systematic physical training has for its object rather the will 
training than recreation, and this must not be forgotten. To 
go from a hard lesson to a series of calisthenic exercises is to 
go from one kind of will training to another. Exhaustion of 
the will should be followed by the caprice and wild freedom 

15 of the recess. But systematic physical exercise has its suffi- 
cient reason in its aid to a graceful use of the limbs, its 
development of muscles that are left unused or rudimentary 
unless called forth by special training, and for the help it gives 
to the teacher in the way of school discipline. 

20 Your Committee would mention in this connection instruc- 
tion in morals and manners, which ought to be given in a brief 
series of lessons each year with a view to build up in the mind 
a theory of the conventionalities of polite and pure-minded 
society. If these lessons are made too long or too numerous, 

25 they are apt to become offensive to the child's mind. It is of 
course understood by your Committee that the substantial 
moral training of the school is performed by the discipline 
rather than by the instruction in ethical theory. The child is 
trained to be regular and punctual, and to restrain his desire to 

30 talk and whisper — in these things gaining self-control day by 
day. The essence of moral behavior is self-control. The school 
teaches good behavior. The intercourse of a pupil with his 
fellows without evil words or violent actions is insisted on and 
secured. The higher moral qualities of truth-telling and sin- 

35 cerity are taught in every class exercise that lays stress on 
accuracy of statement. 

Your Committee has already discussed the importance of 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 73 

teaching something of algebraic processes in the seventli and 
eighth grades with the view to obtaining better methods of 
solving problems in advanced arithmetic; a majority of your 
Committee are of the opinion that formal English grammar 
should be discontinued in the eighth year, and the study of 5 
some foreign language, preferably that of Latin, substituted. 
The educational effect on an English-speaking pupil of taking 
up a language which, like Latin, uses inflections instead of 
prepositions, and which further differs from English by the 
order in which its words are arranged in the sentence, is quite lo 
marked, and a year of Latin places a pupil by a wide interval 
out of the range of the pupil who has continued English 
grammar without taking up Latin. But the effect of the 
year's study of Latin increases the youth's power of appercep- 
tion in very many directions by reason of the fact that so 15 
much of the English vocabulary used in technical vocabularies, 
like those of geography, grammar, history, and literature, is 
from a Latin source, and besides there are so many traces in 
the form and substance of human learning of the hundreds of 
years when Latin was the only tongue in which observation 20 
and reflection could be expressed. 

Your Committee refers to the programme given later in this 
report for the details of co-ordinating these several branches 
already recommended. 

The dijfercnce betivccn elementary and secondary studies 

In recommending the introduction of algebraic processes in 25 
the seventh and eighth years — as well as in the recommenda- 
tion just now made to introduce Latin in the eighth year of 
the elementary course — your Committee has come face to 
face with the question of the intrinsic difference between 
elementary and secondary studies. 30 

Custom has placed algebra, geometry, the history of English 
literature, and Latin in the rank of secondary studies: also 
general history, physical geography, and the elements of 
physics and chemistry. In a secondary course of four years 
trigonometry may be added to the mathematics; some of 35 



74 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

the sciences whose elements are used in physical geography 
may be taken up separately in special treatises, as geology, 
botany, and physiology. There may be also a study of whole 
works of English authors, as Shakspere, Milton, and Scott, 
5 Greek is also begun in the second or third year of the 
secondary course. This is the custom in most public high 
schools. But in private secondary schools Latin is begun 
earlier, and so, too, Greek, algebra, and geometry. Sometimes 
geometry is taken up before algebra, as is the custom in 

lo German schools. These arrangements are based partly on 
tradition, partly on the requirements of higher institutions for 
admission, and partly on the ground that the intrinsic difficul- 
ties in these studies have fixed their places in the course of 
study. Of those who claim that there is an intrinsic reason 

15 for the selection and order of these studies, some base their 
conclusions on experience in conducting pupils through them, 
others on psychological grounds. The latter contend, for 
example, that algebra deals with general forms of calculation, 
while arithmetic deals with the particular instances of calcula- 

2otion. Whatever deals with the particular instance is relatively 
elementary, whatever deals with the general form is relatively 
secondary. In the expression a + b = c algebra indicates the 
form of all addition. This arithmetic cannot do, except in the 
form of a verbal rule describing the steps of the operation : its 

25 examples are all special instances falling under the general 
form given in algebra. If, therefore, arithmetic is an elemen- 
tary branch, algebra is relatively to it a secondary branch. 
So, too, geometry, though not directly based on arithmetic, 
has to presuppose an acquaintance with it when it reduces 

30 spatial functions into numerical forms, as, for example, in the 
measurement of surfaces and solids, and in ascertaining the 
ratio of the circumference to the radius, and of the hypot- 
enuse to the two other sides of the right-angled triangle. 
Geometry, moreover, deals with necessary relations; its demon- 

35strations reach universal and necessary conclusions, holding 
good not merely in such material shapes as we have met with 
in actual experience, but with all examples possible, past, 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 75 

present, or future. Such knowledge transcending experience is 
intrinsically secondary as compared with the first acquaintance 
with geometric shapes in concrete examples. 

In the case of geometry it is claimed by some that what is 
called "inventional geometry" may be properly introduced into 5 
the elementary grades. By this some mean the practice with 
blocks in the shape of geometric solids and the construc- 
tion of different figures from the same; others mean the 
rediscovery by the pupil for himself of the necessary relations 
demonstrated by Euclid. The former — exercises of construe- 10 
tion with blocks — are well enough in the kindergarten, where 
they assist in learning number, as well as in the analysis of 
material forms. But its educational value is small for pupils 
advanced into the use of books. The original discovery of 
Euclid's demonstrations, on the other hand, belongs more prop- 15 
erly to higher education than to elementary. In the geometrical 
text-books recently introduced into secondary schools there is 
so much of original demonstration required that the teacher is 
greatly embarrassed on account of the differences in native 
capacity for mathematics that develop among the pupils of the 20 
same class in solving the problems of invention. A few gifted 
pupils delight in the inventions, and develop rapidly in power, 
while the majority of the class use too much time over them, 
and thus rob the other branches of the course of study, or else 
fall into the bad practice of getting help from others in the 25 
preparation of their lessons. A few in every class fall hope- 
lessly behind and are discouraged. The result is an attempt on 
the part of the teacher to correct the evil by requiring a more 
thorough training in the mathematical studies preceding, and 
the consequent delay of secondary pupils in the lower grades of 30 
the course in order to bring up their "inventional geometry." 
Many, discouraged, fail to go on; many more fail to reach, 
higher studies because unable to get over the barrier unnec>es- 
sarily placed before them by teachers who desire that no pupits 
except natural geometricians shall enter into higher studies. 35 

Physical geography in its scientific form is very properly 
made a part of the secondary course of study. The pupil in 



76 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

his ninth year of work can profitably acquire the scientific 
technique of geology, botany, zoology, meteorology, and 
ethnology, and in the following years take up those sciences 
separately and push them further, using the method of actual 
5 investigation. The subject-matter of physical geography is of 
very high interest to the pupil who has studied geography in 
the elementary grades after an approved method. It takes up 
the proximate grounds and causes for the elements of differ- 
ence on the earth's surface, already become familiar to him 

lo through his elementary studies, and pushes them back into 
deeper, simpler, and more satisfactory principles. This study 
performs the work also of correlating the sciences that relate to 
organic nature by showing their respective uses to man. From 
the glimpses which the pupil gets of mineralogy, geology, 

15 botany, zoology, ethnology, and meteorology in their necessary 
connection as geographic conditions he sees the scope and 
grand significance of those separate inquiries. A thirst is 
aroused in him to pursue his researches into their domains. 
He sees, too, the borderlands in which new discoveries may be 

20 made by the enterprising explorer. 

Physics, including what was called until recently "natural 
philosophy," after Newton's Principia {Philosophic^ naturalis 
principia niatJieinaticd), implies more knowledge of mathe- 
matics for its thorough discussion than the secondary pupil is 

25 likely to possess. In fact, the study of this branch in college 
thirty years ago was crippled by the same cause. It should 
follow the completion of analytical geometry. Notwithstand- 
ing this, a very profitable study of this subject may be made 
in the second year of the high school or preparatory school, 

30 although the formulas can then be understood in so far as they 
imply elementary algebra only. The pupil does not get the 
most exact notions of the quantitative laws that rule matter in 
its states of motion and equilibrium, but he does see the action 
of forces as qualitative elements of phenomena, and understand 

35 quite well the mechanical inventions by which men subdue them 
for his use and safety. Even in the elementary grades the pupil 
can seize very many of these qualitative aspects and learn the 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 'J'J 

explanation of the mechanical phenomena of nature, and 
other applications of the same principles in invention, as for 
example, gravitation in falling bodies: its measurement by the 
scales; the part it plays in the pump, the barometer, the pen- 
dulum ; cohesion in mud, clay, glue, paste, mortar, cement, etc. ; 5 
capillary attraction in lamp-wicks, sponges, sugar, the sap in 
plants; the applications of lifting by the lever, pulley, inclined 
plane, wedge, and screw; heat in the sun, combustion, fric- 
tion, steam, thermometer, conduction, clothing, cooking, etc.: 
the phenomena of light, electricity, magnetism, and the 10 
explanation of such mechanical devices as spectacles, tele- 
scopes, microscopes, prisms, photographic cameras, electric 
tension in bodies, lightning, mariner's compass, horseshoe mag- 
net, the telegraph, the dynamo. This partially qualitative 
study of forces and mechanical inventions has the educational 15 
effect of enlightening the pupil, and emancipating him from 
the network of superstition that surrounds him in the child 
world, partly of necessity and partly by reason of the illiterate 
adults that he sometimes meets with in the persons of nurses, 
servants, and tradespeople, whose occupations have more 20 
attraction for him than those of cultured people. The fairy 
world is a world of magic, of immediate interventions of 
supernatural spiritual beings, and while this is proper enough 
for the child up to the time of the school, and in a lessening 
degree for some time after, it is only negative and harmful in 25 
adult manhood and womanhood. It produces arrested devel- 
opment of powers of observation and reflection in reference to 
phenomena, and stops the growth of the soul at the infantine 
stage of development. Neither is this infantine stage of 
wonder and magic more religious than the stage of disillusion 30 
through the study of mathematics and physics. It is the 
arrest of religious development also, at the stage of fetichism. 
The highest religion, that of pure Christianity, sees in the 
world infinite mediations, all for the purpose of developing 
independent individuality ; the perfection of human souls not 35 
only in one kind of piety, namely that of the heart, but in the 
piety of the intellect that beholds truth, the piety of the will 



78 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

that does good deeds wisely, the piety of the senses that sees 
the beautiful and reah'zes it in works of art. This is the Chris- 
tian idea of divine Providence as contrasted with the heathen 
idea of that Providence, and the study of natural philosophy 
sis an essential educational requisite in its attainment, although 
a negative means. Of course there is danger of replacing the 
spiritual idea of the divine by the dynamical or mechanical 
idea and thus arresting the mind at the stage of pantheism 
instead of fetichism. But this danger can be avoided by further 

lo education through secondary into higher education, whose 
entire spirit and method are comparative and philosophical in 
the best sense of the term. For higher education seems to 
have as its province the correlation of the several branches of 
human learning in the unity of the spiritual view furnished by 

15 religion to our civilization. By it one learns to see each branch, 
each science or art or discipline, in the light of all the others. 
This higher or comparative view is essential to any complete- 
ness of education, for it alone prevents the one-sidedness of 
hobbies, or "fads" as they are called in tlie slang of the day. 

20 It prevents also the bad effects that flow from the influence 
of what are termed "self-educated men," who for the most part 
carry up with them elementary methods of study, or at best, 
secondary methods, which accentuate the facts and relations 
of natural and spiritual phenomena, but do not deal with their 

25 higher correlations. The comparative method cannot, in fact, 
be well introduced until the student is somewhat advanced, 
and has already completed his elementary course of study 
dealing with the immediate aspects of the world, and his 
secondary course dealing with the separate formal and dynam- 

3oical aspects that lie next in order behind the facts of first 
observation. Higher education in a measure unifies these separ- 
ate formal and dynamic aspects, corrects their one-sidedness, 
and prevents the danger of what is so often noted in the self- 
educated men who unduly exaggerate someone of the subordi- 

35 nate aspects of the world and make it a sort of first principle. 

Here your Committee finds in its way the question of the 

use of the full scientific method in the teaching of science in 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 79 

the elementary school. The true method has been called the 
method of investigation, but that method as used by the child 
is only a sad caricature of the method used by the mature 
scientific man, who has long since passed through the fragmen- 
tary observation and reflection that prevail in the period of 5 
childhood, as well as the tendencies to exaggeration of the 
importance of one or another branch of knowledge at the 
expense of the higher unity that correlates all ; an exaggeration 
that manifests itself in the possession and use of a hobby. 
The ideal scientific man has freed himself from obstacles of 10 
this kind, whether psychological or objective. What astronom- 
ical observers call the subjective coefficient must be ascer- 
tained and eliminated from the record that shows beginnings, 
endings, and rates. There is a possibility of perfect speciali- 
zation in a scientific observer only after the elementary and 15 
secondary attitudes of mind have been outgrown. An attempt 
to force the child into the full scientific method by specializa- 
tion would cause an arrest of his development in the other 
branches of human learning outside of his specialty. He could 
not properly inventory the data of his own special sphere unless 20 
he knew how to recognize the defining limits or boundaries 
that separate his province from its neighbors. The early days 
of science abounded in examples of confusion of provinces in 
the inventories of their data. It is difficult, even now, to decide 
where physics and chemistry leave off, and biology begins. 25 

Your Committee does not attempt to state the exact propor- 
tion in which the child, at his various degrees of advancement, 
may be able to dispense with the guiding influence of teacher 
and text-book in his investigations, but they protest strongly 
against the illusion under which certain zealous advocates of 30 
the early introduction of scientific method seem to labor. 
They ignore in their zeal the deduction that is to be made for 
the guiding hand of the teacher, who silently furnishes to the 
child the experience that he lacks, and quietly directs his 
special attention to this or to that phase, and prevents him 35 
from hasty or false generalization as well as from undue exag- 
geration of single facts or principles. Here the teacher adds 



80 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

the needed scientific outlook which the child lacks, but which 
the mature scientist possesses for himself. 

It is contended by some that the scientific frame of mind is 
adapted only to science, but not to art, literature, and religion, 
5 which have something essential that science does not reach; 
not because of the incompleteness of the sciences themselves, 
but because of the attitude of the mind assumed in the obser- 
vation of nature. In analytic investigation there is isolation of 
parts one from another, with a view to find the sources of the 

lo influences which produce the phenomena shown in the object. 
The mind brings everything to the test of this idea. Every 
phenomenon that exists comes from beyond itself, and analysis 
will be able to trace the source. 

Now, this frame of mind, which insists on a foreign origin of 

15 all that goes to constitute an object, debars itself in advance 
from the province of religion, art, and literature as well as of 
philosophy. For self-determination, personal activity, is the 
first principle assumed by religion, and it is tacitly assumed by 
art and literature, Classic and Christian. The very definition 

20 of philosophy implies this, for it is the attempt to explain the 
world by the assumption of a first principle, and to show that 
all classes of objects imply that principle as ultimate presuppo- 
sition. According to this view it is important not to attempt 
to hasten the use of a strictly scientific method on the part of 

25 the child. In his first years he is acquiring the results of 
civilization rather as an outfit of habits, usages, and traditions 
than as a scientific discovery. He cannot be expected to stand 
over against the culture of his time, and challenge one and all 
of its conventionalities to justify themselves before his reason. 

30 His reason is too weak. He is rather in the imitation stage 
of mind than in that of criticism. He will not reach the com- 
parative or critical method until the era of higher education. 

However this may be, it is clear that the educational value 
of science and its method is a very important question, and 

35 that on it depends the settlement of the question where 
specialization may begin. To commence the use of the real 
scientific method would imply a radical change also in methods 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 8 1 

from the beginning. This may be realized by considering the 
hold which even the kindergarten retains upon symbolism 
and upon art and literature. But in the opinion of a majority 
of your Committee natural science itself should be approached, 
in the earliest years of the elementary school, rather in the 5 
form of results with glimpses into the methods by which these 
results were reached. In the last two years (the seventh and 
eighth) there may be some strictness of scientific form and 
an exhibition of the method of discovery. The pupil, too, 
may to some extent put this method in practice himself. In 10 
the secondary school there should be some laboratory work. 
But the pupil cannot be expected to acquire for himself fully 
the scientific method of dealing with nature until the second 
part of higher education — its post-graduate work. Neverthe- 
less this good should be kept in view from the first year of the 15 
elementary school, and there should be a gradual and con- 
tinual approach to it. 

In the study of general history appears another branch of 
the secondary course. History of the native land is assumed 
to be an elementary study. History of the world is certainly 20 
a step further away from the experience of the child. It is 
held by some teachers to be in accordance with proper method 
to begin with the foreign relations of one's native land and 
to work outward to the world-history. The European relations 
involved in the discovery and colonization of America furnish 25: 
the only explanation to a multitude of questions that the pupil 
has started in the elementary school. He should move out- 
ward from what he has already learned, by the study of a new 
concentric circle of grounds and reasons, according to this view. 
This, however, is not the usual course taken. On beginning 30 
secondary history the pupil is set back face to face with the 
period of tradition, just when historic traces first make their 
appearance. He is by this arrangement broken off from the 
part of history that he has become acquainted with and made to 
grapple with that period which has no relation to his previous 35 
investigations. It is to be said, however, that general history 
lays stress on the religious thread of connection, though less now 



82 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

than formerly. The world history is a conception of the great 
Christian thinker, St. Augustine, who held that the world 
and its history is a sort of antiphonic hymn in which God 
reads his counsels, and the earth and man read the responses. 
5 He induced Orosius, his pupil, to sketch a general history in 
the spirit of his view. It was natural that the Old Testament 
histories, and especially the chapters of Genesis, should furnish 
the most striking part of its contents. This general history 
was connected with religion and brought closer to the 

lo experience of the individual than the history of his own 
people. To commence history with the Garden of Eden, the 
Fall of Man, and the Noachian Deluge was to begin with what 
was most familiar to all minds, and most instructive, because it 
concerned most nearly the conduct of life. Thus religion fur- 

15 nished the apperceptive material by which the early portions of 

histor)' were recognized, classified, and made a part of experience. 

Now that studies in archeology, especially those in the Nile 

and Euphrates valleys, are changing the chronologies and the 

records of early times and adding new records of the past, 

20 bringing to light national movements and collisions of peoples, 
together with data by which to determine the status of their 
industrial civilization, their religious ideas, and the form of 
their literature and art, the concentric arrangement of all this 
material around the history of the chosen people as a nucleus 

25 is no longer possible. The question has arisen, therefore, 
whether general history should not be rearranged for the 
secondary school, and made to connect with American history 
for apperceptive material rather than with Old Testament 
history. To this it has been replied with force that the idea 

30 of a world history, as St. Augustine conceived it, is the noblest 
educative ideal ever connected with the subject of history. 
Future versions of general history will not desert this stand- 
point, we are told, even if they take as their basis that of 
-ethnology and anthropology, for these, too, will exhibit a plan 

35 in human history — an educative principle that leads nations 
toward freedom and science, because the Creator of nature 
has made it, in its fundamental constitution, an evolution or 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 83 

progressive development of individuality. Thus the idea of 
divine Providence is retained, though made more comprehen- 
sive by bringing the whole content of natural laws within his 
will as his method of work. 

These considerations, we are reminded by the partisans of 5 
humanity studies, point back to the educative value of history 
as corrective of the one-sidedness of the method of science. 
Science seeks explanation in the mechanical conditions of, and 
impulses received from, the environment, while history keeps 
its gaze fixed on human purposes, and studies the genesis of 10 
national actions through the previous stages of feelings, con- 
victions, and conscious ideas. In history the pupil has for his 
object self-activity, reaction against environment, instead of 
mechanism, or activity through another. 

The history of English literature is another stwdy of the 15 
secondary school. It is very properly placed beyond the ele- 
mentary school, • for as taught it consists largely of the 
biographies of men of letters. The pupils who have not yet 
learned any great work of literature should not be pestered 
with literary biography, for at that stage the greatness of the 20 
men of letters cannot be seen. Plutarch makes great biogra- 
phies because he shows heroic struggles and great deeds. The 
heroism of artists and poets consists in sacrificing all for the 
sake of their creations. The majority of them come off sadly 
at the hands of the biographer, for the i^ason that the very 25 
sides of their lives are described which they had slighted and 
neglected for the sake of the Muses. The prophets of Israel 
did not live in city palaces, but in caves ; they did not wear 
fine raiment, nor feed sumptuously, nor conform to the codes of 
polite society. They were no courtiers when they approached 30 
the king. They neglected all the other institutions — family, 
productive industry, and state — for the sake of one, the Church, 
and even that not the established ceremonial of the people, 
but a higher and more direct communing with Jehovah. So 
with artists and men of letters it is more or less the case that 35 
the institutional side of their lives is neglected, or unsymmet- 
rical, or if this is not the case it will be found prosaic- and 



84 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

uneventful, throwing no light on their matchless produc- 
tions. 

For these reasons should not the present use of literary 
biography as it exists in secondary schools, and is gradually 
5 making its way into elementary schools, be discouraged, and 
the time now given to it devoted to the study of literary works 
of art? It will be admitted that the exposure of the foibles 
of artists has an immoral tendency on youth : for example, 
one affects to be a poet, and justifies laxity and self-indulgence 
lo through the example of Byron. Those who support this view 
hold that we should not dignify the immoral and defective 
side of life by making it a branch of study in school. 

Correlation by synthesis of studies 

Your Committee would mention another sense in which the 
expression correlation of studies is sometimes used. It is held 

15 by advocates of an artificial center of the course of study. 
They use, for example, De Foe's Robinson Crusoe for a reading 
exercise, and connect with it the lessons in geography and 
arithmetic. It has been pointed out by critics of this method 
that there is always danger of covering up the literary features 

20 of the reading matter under accessories of mathematics and 
natural science. If the material for other branches is to be 
sought for in connection with the literary exercise, it will dis- 
tract the attention from the poetic unity. On the other hand, 
arithmetic and geography cannot be unfolded freely and com- 

25 prehensively if they are to wait on the opportunities afforded 
in a poem or novel for their development. A correlation of 
this kind, instead of being a deeper correlation such as is found 
in all parts of human learning by the studies of the college and 
university, is rather a shallow and uninteresting kind of corre- 

3olation that reminds one of the system of mnemonics, or arti- 
ficial memory, which neglects the association of facts and ever.*^s 
with their causes and the history of their evolution, and looks 
for unessential quips, puns, or accidental suggestions with a 
view to strengthening the meinory. The effect of this is to 

35 weaken the power of systematic thinking which deals with 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES, 85 

essential relations, and substitute for it a chaotic memory that 
ties together things through false and seeming relations, not 
of the things and events, but of the words that denote them. 

The correlation of geography and arithmetic and history 
in and through the unity of a work of fiction is at best an 5 
artificial correlation, which will stand in the way of the true 
objective correlation. It is a temporary scaffolding made for 
school purposes. Instruction should avoid such temporary 
structures as much as possible, and when used they should be 
only used for the day, and not for the year, because of the 10 
danger of building up an apperceptive center in the child's 
mind that will not harmonize with the true apperceptive center 
required by the civilization. The story of Robinson Crusoe 
has intense interest to the child as a lesson in sociology, show- 
ing him the helplessness of isolated man and the re-enforce- is 
ment that comes to him through society. It shows the impor- 
tance of the division of labor. All children should read this 
book in the later years of the elementary course, and a few 
profitable discussions may be had in school regarding its sig- 
nificance. But De Foe painted in it only the side of adventure 20 
that he found in his countrymen in his epoch, England after 
the defeat of the Armada having taken up a career of con- 
quest on the seas, ending by colonization and a world com- 
merce. The liking for adventure continues to this day among 
all Anglo-Saxon peoples, and beyond other nationalities there 25 
is in English-speaking populations a delight in building up 
civilization from the very foundation. This is only, however, 
one phase of the Anglo-Saxon mind. Consequently the his- 
tory of Crusoe is not a proper center for a year's study in 
school. It omits cities, governments, the world commerce, 30 
tha international process, the Church, the newspaper and book 
from view, and they are not even reflected in it. 

Your Committee would call attention in this connection to the 
importance of the pedagogical principle of analysis and isolation 
as preceding synthesis and correlation. There should be rigid 35 
isolation of the elements of each branch for the purpose of get- 
ting a clear conception of what is individual and peculiar in a 



86 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

special province of learning. Otherwise one will not gain from 
each its special contribution to the whole. That there is some 
danger from the kind of correlation that essays to teach all 
branches in each will be apparent from this point of view. 

III. THE SCHOOL PROGRAMME 

5 In order to find a place in the elementary school for the 
several branches recommended in this report, it will be nec- 
essary to use economically the time allotted for the school 
term, which is about two hundred days, exclusive of vacations 
and holidays. Five days per week and five hours of actual 

lo school work or a little less per day, after excluding recesses for 
recreation, give about twenty-five hours per w-eek. There 
should be, as far as possible, alternation of study-hours and 
recitations (the word recitation being used in the United 
States for class exercise or lesson conducted by the teacher 

15 and requiring the critical attention of the entire class). Those 
studies requiring the clearest thought should be taken up, as a 
usual thing, in the morning session, say arithmetic the second 
half hour of the morning and grammar the half-hour next 
succeeding the morning recess for recreation in the open air. 

20 By some who are anxious to prevent study at home, or at least 
to control its amount, it is thought advisable to place the 
arithmetic lesson after the grammar lesson, so that the study 
learned at home will be grammar instead of arithmetic. It is 
found by experience that if mathematical problems are taken 

25 home for solution two bad habits arise, namely, in one case, the 
pupil gets assistance from his parents or others, and thereby 
loses to some extent his own power of overcoming difficulties 
by brave and persistent attacks unaided by others ; the other 
evil is a habit of consuming long hours in the preparation of a 

30 lesson that should be prepared in thirty minutes, if all the 
powers of mind are fresh and at command. An average child 
may spend three hours in the preparation of an arithmetic 
lesson. Indeed, in repeated efforts to solve one of the so- 
called "conundrums," a whole family may spend the entire 

35 evening. One of the unpleasant results of the next day is 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 8/ 

that the teacher who conducts the lesson never knows the 
exact capacity and rate of progress of his pupils ; in the 
recitation he probes the knowledge and preparation of the 
pupil, plus an unknown amount of preparatory work borrowed 
from parents and others. He even increases the length of the 5 
lessons, and requires more work at home, when the amount 
already exceeds the unaided capacity of the pupil. 

The lessons should be arranged so as to bring in such exer- 
cises as furnish relief from intellectual tension between others 
that make large demands on the thinking powers. Such exer- 10 
cises as singing and calisthenics, writing and drawing, also read- 
ing, are of the nature of a relief from those recitations that tax 
the memory, critical alertness, and introspection, like arithme- 
tic, grammar, and history. 

Your Committee has not been able to agree on the question 15 
whether pupils who leave school early should have a course of 
study different from the course of those who are to continue 
on into secondary and higher work. It is contended, on the 
one hand, that those who leave early should have a more practi- 
cal course, and that they should dispense with those studies 20 
that seem to be in the nature of preparatory work for sec- 
ondary and higher education. Such studies as algebra and 
Latin, for example, should not be taken up unless the pupil 
expects to pursue the same for a sufficient time to complete 
the secondary course. It is replied, on the other hand, that it 25 
is best to have one course for all, because any school education 
is at best but an initiation for the pupil into the art of learn- 
ing, and that wherever he leaves off in his school course he 
should continue, by the aid of the public library and home 
study, in the work of mastering science and literature. It is 30 
further contended that a brief course in higher studies, like 
Latin and algebra, instead of being useless, is of more value 
than any elementary studies that might replace them. The 
first ten lessons in algebra give the pupil the fundamental idea 
of the general expression of arithmetical solutions by means 35 
of letters and other symbols. Six months' study of it gives 
him the power to use the method in stating the manifold con- 



88 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

ditions of a problem in partnership, or in ascertaining a value 
that depends on several transformations of the data given. It 
is claimed, indeed, that the first few lessons in any branch are 
relatively of more educational value than an equal number of 
5 subsequent lessons, because the fundamental ideas and princi- 
ples of the new study are placed at the beginning. In Latin, 
for instance, the pupil learns in his first week's study the to 
him strange phenomenon of a language that performs by 
inflections what his own language performs by the use of prep- 

loositions and auxiliaries. He is still more surprised to find that 
the order of words in a sentence is altogether different in Ro- 
man usage from that to which he is accustomed. He further 
begins to recognize in the Latin words many roots or stems 
which are employed to denote immediate sensuous objects, 

15 while they have been adopted into his English tongue to 
signify fine shades of distinction in thought or feeling. By 
these three things his powers of observation in matters of 
language are armed, as it were, with new faculties. Nothing 
that he has hitherto learned in grammar is so radical and far- 

20 reaching as what he learns in his first week's study of Latin. 
The Latin arrangement of words in a sentence indicates a dif- 
ferent order of mental arrangement in the process of appre- 
hension and expression of thought. This arrangement is ren- 
dered possible by declensions. This amounts to attaching 

25 prepositions to the ends of the words, which they thus convert 
into adjectival or adverbial modifiers ; whereas the separate 
prepositions of the English must indicate by their position in 
the sentence their grammatical relation. These observations, 
and the new insight into the etymology of English words hav- 

3oing a Latin derivation, are of the nature of mental seeds which 
will grow and bear fruit throughout life in the better command 
of one's native tongue. All this will come from a very brief 
time devoted to Latin in school. 

Amount of time for each branch 

Your Committee recommends that an hour of sixty minutes 
35 each week be assigned in the programme for each of the fol- 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 89 

lowing subjects throughout the eight years : physical culture, 
vocal music, oral lessons in natural science (hygiene to be 
included among the topics under this head), oral lessons in 
biography and general history, and that the same amount of 
time each week shall be devoted to drawing from the second 5 
year to the eighth inclusive; to manual training during the 
seventh and eighth years so as to include sewing and cookery 
for the girls, and work in wood and iron for the boys. 

Your Committee recommends that reading be given at least 
one lesson each day for the entire eight years, it being under- 10 
stood, however, that there shall be two or more lessons each day 
in reading in the first and second years, in which the recitation 
is necessarily very short, because of the inability of the pupil to 
give continued close attention, and because he has little power 
of applying himself to the work of preparing lessons by him- 15 
self. In the first three years the reading should be limited to 
pieces in the colloquial style, but selections from the classics 
of the language in prose and in poetry shall be read to the 
pupil from time to time, and discussions made of such features 
of the selections read as may interest the pupils. After the 20 
third year your Committee believes that the reading lesson 
should be given to selections from classic authors of English, 
and that the work of the recitation should be divided between 
(a) the elocution, {d) the grammatical peculiarities of the lan- 
guage, including spelling, definitions, syntactical construction, 25 
punctuation, and figures of prosody, and (c) the literary con- 
tents, including the main and accessory ideas, the emotions 
painted, the deeds described, the devices of style to produce a 
strong impression on the reader. Your Committee wishes to lay 
emphasis on the importance of the last item,— that of literary 30 
study, — which should consume more and more of the time of 
the recitation from grade to grade in the period from the fourth 
to the eighth year. In the fourth year and previously the first 
item — that of elocution, to secure distinct enunciation and 
correct pronunciation — should be most prominent. In the 35 
fifth and sixth years the second item — that of spelling, defin- 
ing, and punctuation — should predominate slightly over the 



90 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

Other two items. In the years from the fifth to the eighth 
there should be some reading of entire stories, such as 
Gulhver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, Rip Van Winkle, The 
Lady of the Lake, Hiawatha, and similar stories adapted in 

5 style and subject-matter to the capacity of the pupils. An 
hour should be devoted each week to conversations on the 
salient points of the story, its literary and ethical bearings. 

Your Committee agrees in the opinion that in teaching 
language care should be taken that the pupil practices much 

loin writing exercises and original compositions. At first the 
pupil will use only his colloquial vocabulary, but as he gains 
command of the technical vocabularies of geography, arithme- 
tic, and history, and learns the higher literary vocabulary of his 
language, he will extend his use of words accordingly. Daily 

1 5 from the first year the child will prepare some lesson or por- 
tion of a lesson in writing. Your Committee has included 
under the head of oral grammar (from the first to the middle 
of the fifth year) one phase of this written work devoted to the 
study of the literary form and the technicalities of composition 

2oin such exercises as letter writing, written reviews of the 
several branches studied, reports of the oral lessons in natural 
science and history, paraphrases of the poems and prose litera- 
ture of the readers, and finally compositions or written essays 
on suitable themes assigned by the teacher, but selected from 

25 the fields of knowledge studied in school. Care should be 
taken to criticise all paraphrases of poetry in respect to the 
good or bad taste shown in the choice of words ; parodies 
should never be permitted. 

It is thought by your Committee that the old style of com- 

30 position writing was too formal. It was kept too far away 
from the other work of the pupil. Instead of giving a written 
account of what he had learned in arithmetic, geography, 
grammar, histor>', and natural science, the pupil attempted 
artificial descriptions and reflections on such subjects as 

35 " Spring," " Happiness," " Perseverance," " Friendship," or 
something else outside of the line of his school studies. 

Your Committee has already expressed its opinion that 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 9I 

a good English style is not to be acquired by the study of 
grammar so much as by familiarity with great masterpieces 
of literature. We especially recommend that pupils who 
have taken up the fourth and fifth readers, containing the 
selections from great authors, should often be required to 5 
make written paraphrases of prose or poetic models of style, 
using their own vocabulary to express the thoughts so far as 
possible, and borrowing the recherche words and phrases of 
the author, where their own resources fail them. In this way 
the pupil learns to see what the great author has done to en- 10 
rich the language and to furnish adequate means of expression 
for what could not be presented in words before, or at least 
not in so happy a manner. 

Your Committee believes that every recitation is, in one 
aspect of it, an attempt to express the thoughts and informa-15 
tion of the lesson in the pupil's own words, and thus an initial 
exercise in composition. The regular weekly written review 
of the important topics in the several branches studied is a 
more elaborate exercise in composition, the pupil endeavoring 
to collect what he knows and to state it systematically and 20 
in proper language. The punctuation, spelling, syntax, pen- 
manship, choice of words, and style should not, it is true, be 
made a matter of criticism in connection with the other lessons, 
but only in the language lesson proper. But the pupil will learn 
language, all the same, by the written and oral recitations. The 25 
oral grammar lessons from the first year to the middle of the 
fifth year, should deal chiefly with the use of language, gradually 
introducing the grammatical technique as it is needed to describe 
accurately the correct forms and the usages violated. 

Your Committee believes that there is some danger of wast-3o 
ing the time of the pupil in these oral and written language 
lessons in the first four years by confining the work of the 
pupil to the expression of ordinary commonplace ideas not 
related to the subjects of his other lessons, especially when the 
expression is confined to the colloquial vocabulary. Such 35 
training has been severely and justly condemned as teaching 
what is called prating or gabbling, rather than a noble use of 



92 REPORT OF THE COMxMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

English speech. It is clear that the pupil should have a digni- 
fied and worthy subject of composition, and what is so good 
for his purpose as the themes he has tried to master in his 
regular lessons ? The reading lessons will give matter for 
5 literary style, the geography for scientific style, and the arith- 
metic for a business style ; for all styles should be learned. 

Your Committee recommends that selected lists of words 
difficult to spell be made from the reading lessons and mastered 
by frequent writing and oral spelling during the fourth, fifth, 
loand sixth years. 

Your Committee recommends that the use of a text-book in 
grammar begin with the second half of the fifth year, and con- 
tinue until the beginning of the study of Latin in the eighth 
grade, and that one daily lesson of twenty-five or thirty min- 
15 utes be devoted to it. 

For Latin we recommend one daily lesson of thirty minutes 
for the eighth year. For arithmetic we recommend number 
work from the first year to the eighth, one lesson each day, but 
the use of the text-book in number should not, in our opinion, 
20 begin until the first quarter of the third year. We recommend 
that the applications of elementary algebra to arithmetic, as 
hereinbefore explained, be substituted for pure arithmetic in 
the seventh and eighth years, a daily lesson being given. 

Your Committee recommends that penmanship as a separate 
25 branch be taught in the first six years at least three lessons per 
week. 

Geography, in the opinion of your Committee, should begin 

with oral lessons in the second year, and with a text-book in the 

third quarter of the third year, and be continued to the close of 

30 the sixth year with one lesson each day, and in the seventh and 

eighth years with three lessons per week. 

History of the United States with the use of a text-book, 
your Committee recommends for the seventh and the first half 
of the eighth year, one lesson each day; the Constitution of 
35 the United States for the third quarter of the eighth year. 

The following schedule will show the number of lessons per 
week for each quarter of each year : 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 93 

Reading. Eight years, with daily lessons. 

Penmanship. Six years, ten lessons per week for first two years, five for 
third and fourth, and three for fifth and si.xth. 

Spelling Lists. Fourth, fifth, and sixth years, four lessons per week. 

Grammar. Oral, with composition or dictation, first year to middle of fifth 5 
year, text-book from middle of fifth year to close of seventh year, five 
lessons per week. (Composition writing should be included under this 
head. But the written examinations on the several branches should be 
counted under the head of composition work.) 

Latin or French or German. Eighth year, five lessons per week. lo 

Arithmetic. Oral first and second year, text-book third to sixth year, five 
lessons per week. 

Algebra. Seventh and eighth year, five lessons per week. 

Geography. Oral lessons second year to middle of third year, text-book 
from middle of third year, five lessons weekly to seventh year, and three 15 
lessons to close of eighth. 

Natural Science and Hygiene. Sixty minutes per week, eight years. 

History of United States. Five hours per week seventh year and first half 
of eighth year. 

Constitution of United States. Third quarter in the eighth year. 20 

General History and Biography. Oral lessons, sixty minutes a week, eight 
years. 

Physical Culture. Sixty minutes a week, eight years. 

Vocal Music. Sixty minutes a week, eight years. 

Drawing. Sixty minutes a week, eight years. 25 

Manual Training, Sewing and Cooking. One-half day each week in sev- 
enth and eighth years. 

Your Committee recommends recitations of fifteen minutes in 
length in the first and second years, of twenty minutes in length 
in the third and fourth years, of twenty-five minutes in the fifth 30 
and sixth years, and of thirty minutes in the seventh and eighth. 

The results of this programme show for the first and second 
years twenty lessons a week of fifteen minutes each, besides seven 
other exercises occupying an average of twelve minutes apiece 
each day; the total amount of time occupied in the continuous 35 
attention of the recitation or class exercises being twelve hours, 
or an average of two hours and twenty-four minutes per day. 

For the third year twenty lessons a week of twenty minutes 
each, and five general exercises taking up five hours a week or an 
average of one hour per day, giving an average time per day of 40 
two hours and twenty minutes for class recitations or exercises. 

In the fourth the recitations increase to twenty-four (by 
reason of four extra lessons in spelling) and the time occupied 



94 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 



in recitations and exercises to thirteen hours and an average 
per day of two hours thirty-six minutes. 



Branches 


isi year 


2d year 


2d year 


^tkyear 


St h year 


6t/tyear 


■jthyear 


Uhyear 


Reading 


ID lessons a week 


5 lessons a week 


Writing 


10 lessons a week 


5 lessons a week 


3 lessons a week 




' Spelling lists... 


1 




4 lessons a week 






English 

Grammar 


Oral, with composition lessons 


5 lessons a week with 
text book 




















5 lessons 




Arithmetic .... 


Oral, 6o minutes 
a week 


5 lessons a week with text-book 






Algebra 














1 
5 lessons a week 1 

i 


Geography 


Oral, 6o minutes a week 


*5 lessons a week with text-book 


3 lessons a week 1 


Natural Science 

+ Hygiene. 


Si.xty minutes a week 


U. S. History.. 














5 lessons a 
week 


U. S. Constitu- 
tion 














* r 
Ics. 

1 


General 

History 


Oral, sixty minutes a week 


Physical 

Culture 


Si.xty minutes a week 


Vocal Music 


Sixty minutes a week 
divided into 4 lessons 


Drawing 


Sixty minutes a week 


Manual Train. 

or Sewing -\- 

Cookery. 




1 
1 








One-half day each 


No. of Lessons 


204-7 
daily 
exer. 


20-4-7 
daily 
exer. 


20+5 
daily 
exer. 


24-I-5 
daily 
exer. 


27-l-S 
daily 
exer. 


daily 
exer. 


234-6 
daily 
exer. 


2^-t-G 

daily 
exer. 


Total Hours of 
Recitations 


12 12 

1 


IIS 


13 


i6i 


i6i 


I7i 


17J 


Length of Reci- 
tions 


15 min. 


IS min. 


20 min. 


20 min. 


25 min. 


25 min. 


30 min. 


30 min. 



* Begins in second half year 



In the fifth and sixth years the number of recitations 
increases to twenty-seven per week, owing to the addition of 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 95 

formal grammar, and the total number of hours required for 
all is 16)^ per week, or an average of t,}{ per day. 

In the seventh and eighth years the number of lessons 
decreases to twenty-three, history being added, penmanship 
and special lessons in spelling discontinued, the time devoted 5 
to geography reduced to three lessons a week. But the reci- 
tation is increased to thirty minutes in length. Manual train- 
ing occupies a half-day, or 2^ hours, each week. The total is 
19 hours per week or 3^ per day. 

The foregoing tabular exhibit shows all of these particulars. 10 

IV. METHODS AND ORGANIZATION 

Your Committee is agreed that the time devoted to the 
elementary school work should not be reduced from eight 
years, but they have recommended, as hereinbefore stated, that 
in the seventh and eighth years a modified form of algebra be 
introduced in place of advanced arithmetic, and that in the 15 
eighth year English grammar yield place to Latin. This 
makes, in their opinion, a proper transition to the studies of 
the secondary school and is calculated to assist the pupil 
materially in his preparation for that Avork. Hitherto, the 
change from the work of the elementary school has been too 20 
abrupt, the pupil beginning three formal studies at once, 
namely algebra, physical geography, and Latin. 

Your Committee has found it necessary to discuss the ques- 
tion of methods of teaching in numerous instances, while con- 
sidering the question of educational values and programmes, 25 
because the value and time of beginning of the several 
branches depends so largely on the method of teaching. 

The following recommendations, however, remain for this 
part of their report : 

They would recommend that the specialization of teachers' 30 
work should not be attempted before the seventh or eighth 
year of the elementary school and in not more than one or 
two studies then. In the secondary school it is expected that 
a teacher v/ill teach one or at most two branches. In the ele- 
mentary school, for at least six years, it is better, en the whole, 35 



96 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

to have each teacher instruct his pupils in all the branches that 
they study, for the reason that only in this way can he hold an 
even pressure on the requirements of work, correlating it in such 
a manner that no one study absorbs undue attention. In this 
Sway the pupils prepare all their lessons under the direct super- 
vision of the same teacher, and by their recitations show what 
defects of methods of study there have been in the preparation. 
The ethical training is much more successful under this plan, 
because the personal influence of a teacher is much greater 

lowhen he or she knows minutely the entire scope of the school 
work. In the case of the special teacher the responsibility is 
divided and the opportunities of special aquaintance with char- 
acter and habits diminished. 

With one teacher, who supervises the study and hears all the 

15 recitations, there is a much better opportunity to cultivate the 
two kinds of attention. The teacher divides his pupils into 
two classes and hears one recite while the other class prepares 
for the next lesson. The pupils reciting are required to pay 
strict attention to the one of their number who is explaining 

20 the point assigned him by the teacher — they are to be on the 
alert to notice any mistakes of statement or omissions of im- 
portant data, they are at the same time to pay close attention 
to the remarks of the teacher. This is one kind of attention, 
which may be called associated critical attention. The pupils 

25 engaged in the preparation of the next lesson are busy, each 
one by himself, studying the book and mastering its facts and 
ideas, and comparing them one with another, and making the 
effort to become oblivious of their fellow-pupils, the recitation 
going on, and the teacher. This is another kind of attention, 

30 which is not associated, but an individual effort to master for 
one's self without aid a prescribed task and to resist all dis- 
tracting influences. These two disciplines in attention are the 
best formal training that the school affords. 

Your Committee has already mentioned a species of faulty 

35 correlation wherein the attempt is made to study all branches 
in each, misapplying Jacotot's maxim, " all is in all " {tout est 
dans to2ii). 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 97 

A frequent error of this kind is the practice of making every 
recitation a language lesson, and interrupting the arithmetic, 
geography, history, literature, or whatever it may be, by call- 
ing the pupil's attention abruptly to something in his forms of 
expression, his pronunciation, or to some faulty use of English ; 5 
thus turning the entire system of school work into a series of 
grammar exercises and weakening the power of continuous 
thought on the objective contents of the several branches, by 
creating a pernicious habit of self-consciousness in the matter of 
verbal expression. While your Committee would not venture 10 
to say that there should not be some degree of attention to the 
verbal expression in all lessons, it is of the opinion that it should 
be limited to criticism of the recitation for its want of techni- 
cal accuracy. The technical words in each branch should be 
discussed until the pupil is familiar with their full force. The 15 
faulty English should be criticised as showing confusion of 
thought or memory, and should be corrected in this sense. 
But solecisms of speech should be silently noted by the teacher 
for discussion in the regular language lesson. 

The question of promotion of pupils has occupied from time 20 
to time very much attention. Your Committee believes that in 
many systems of elementary schools, there is injury done by 
too much formality in ascertaining whether the pupils of a 
given class have completed the work up to a given arbitrarily 
fixed point, and are ready to take up the next apportionment 25 
of the work. In the early days of city school systems, when 
the ofifice of superintendent was first created, it was thought 
necessary to divide up the graded course of study into years 
of work, and to hold stated annual examinations to ascertain 
how many pupils could be promoted to the next grade or 30 
year's work. All that failed at this examination were set back 
?,L the beginning of the year's work to spend another year in 
reviewing it. This was to meet the convenience of the super- 
intendent who, it was said, could not hold examinations to suit 
the wants of individuals or particular classes. From this arrange- 35 
ment there naturally resulted a great deal of what is called 
" marking time." Pupils who had nearly completed the work of 



98 REPORT OF THE COiMMFrTEE OF FIFTEEN 

the year were placed with pupils who had been till now a year's 
interval below them. Discouragement and demoralization at 
the thought of taking up again a course of lessons learned 
once before caused many pupils to leave school prematurely. 
5 This evil has been remedied in nearly one-half of the cities 
by promoting pupils whenever they have completed the work 
of a grade. The constant tendency of classification to become 
imperfect by reason of the difference in rates of advancement 
of the several pupils, owing to disparity in ages, degree of 
lo maturity, temperament, and health, makes frequent reclassifica- 
tion necessary. This is easily accomplished by promoting the 
few pupils who distance the majority of their classmates into 
the next class above, separated as it is or ought to be, by an 
interval of less than half a year. The bright pupils thus pro- 
i5moted have to struggle to make up the ground covered in the 
interval between the two classes, but they are nearly always 
able to accomplish this, and generally will in two years' time 
need another promotion from class to class. 

The Procrustean character of the old city systems has been 
20 removed by this device. 

There remain for mention some other evils besides bad 
systems of promotion due to defects of organization. The 
school buildings are often with superstitious care kept apart 
exclusively for particular grades of pupils. The central build- 
25 ing erected for high school purposes, though only half filled, 
is not made to relieve the neighboring grammar school, 
crowded to such a degree that it cannot receive the classes 
which ought to be promoted from the primary schools. It 
has happened in such cases that this superstition prevailed so 
30 far that the pupils in the primary school building were kept at 
work on studies already finished, because they could not be 
transferred to the grammar school. 

In all good school systems the pupils take up new work 

when they have completed the old, and the bright pupils are 

35 transferred to higher classes when they have so far distanced 

their fellows that the amount of work fixed for the average 

ability of the class does not give them enough to do. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 99 

In conclusion your Committee would state, by way of expla- 
nation, that it has been led into many digressions, in illus- 
trating the details of its recommendations in this report, 
through its desire to make clear the grounds on which it 
has based its conclusions and through the hope that such 5 
details will call out a still more thorough-going discussion of 
the educational values of branches proposed for elementary 
schools, and of the methods by which those branches may be 
successfully taught. 

With a view to increase the interest in this subject yourio 
Committee recommends the publication of selected passages 
from the papers sent in by invited auxiliary committees and 
by volunteers, many of these containing valuable suggestions 
not mentioned in this report. 

William T. Harris, Chairman 
United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. 



I dissent from the majority report of the Committee in 15 
regard to the following points : 

Arithmetic 

I. As to fractions : In teaching arithmetic there does not 
exist any greater dif^culty in getting small children to grasp 
the nature of the fraction as such than in getting them to 
grasp the idea of the simpler whole numbers. It is true that 20 
the fractions j^, ^, 5^, etc., as symbols, are a little more com- 
plex than are the single digits ; but as to the real meaning, 
when once the fractional idea has been properly developed 
by the teacher and the significance of the idea appre- 
hended by the pupil, it is as easily understood as any 25 
other simple truth. Children get the idea of half, third, 
or quarter of many things long before they enter school, 
and they will as readily learn to add, subtract, multiply, 
and divide fractions as they will whole numbers. In using 
fractions they will draw diagrams and pictures representing 30 
the processes of work as quickly and easily as they illustrate 



lOO REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

similar work with integers. It is of course assumed that 
the teacher knows how to teach arithmetic to children, or 
rather, how to teach the children how to teach themselves. 
There is really no valid argument why children in the second, 
5 third, and fourth years in school should not master the fun- 
damental operations in fractions. Not only this, they will 
put the more common fractions into the technique of per- 
centage, and do this as well in the second and third grades as 
at any other time in their future progress. There is only one 

lonew idea involved in this operation, and that consists in giving 
an additional term — per cent. — to the fractional symbol. 
When one number is a part of another, it may be regarded as 
a fractional part or as such a per cent, of it. A great deal of 
percentage is thus learned by the pupils early in the course. 

15 Children are not hurt by learning. Standing still and lost 
motion kill. 

Every recitation should reach the full swing of the learner's 
mind, including all his acquisitions on any given topic. But 
if the teaching of fractions be deferred, as it usually is in most 

20 schools, the time may be materially shortened by teaching 
addition and subtraction of fractions together. This is simple 
enough if different fractions having common denominators are 
used at first, such as f + f = ?, and | — |- = ? Then the next 
step, after sufficient drill on this case, is to take two fractions 

25 (simple) of different units of value, as /4 -\- }i ='^, and 
^— ^ = ? Multiphcation and division may be treated 
similarly. 

In decimals, the pupil is really confronted by a simpler form 
of fractions than the varied forms of common fractions. 

30 Devices and illustrations of a material kind are necessary to 
build up in the pupil's mind at the beginning a clear concept 
of a tenth, etc., etc., and then to show that one-tenth written 
as a decimal is only a shorthand way of writing yV as a com* 
mon fraction, and so on. He sees very soon that the deci- 

35 mal is only a shorthand common fraction, and this notion 
he must hold to. This is the vital point in decimals. The 
idea that they can be changed into common fractions and 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. lOI 

the reverse at will, establishes the fact in the pupil's mind 
that they are common fractions and not uncommon ones. 
Fixing the decimal point will, in a short time, take care of 
itself. 

In teaching arithmetic the steps are: (i) developing the 5 
subject till each pupil gets a clear conception of it ; (2) 
necessary drill to fix the process ; (3) connecting the sub- 
ject with all that has preceded it ; (4) its applications ; (5) 
the pupil's ability to sum up clearly and concisely what he 
has learned. 10 

2. As to abridgment : Under this head, I hold that a course 
in arithmetic, including simple numbers, fractions, tables of 
weights and measures, percentage and interest, and numerical 
operations in powers, does not fit a pupil to begin the study of 
algebra. That while he may carry the book under his arm to 15 
the schoolroom, he is too poorly equipped to make headway 
on this subject, and instead of finishing up algebra in a reason- 
able length of time he is kept too long at it, with a strong 
probability of his becoming disgusted with it. 

There are subjects, however, in the common school arith- 20 
metic that may be dropped out with great advantage, to wit, 
all but the simplest exercises in compound interest, foreign 
exchange, all foreign moneys (except reference tables of 
values), annuities, alligation, progression ; and the entire sub- 
jects of percentage and interest should be condensed into 25 
about twenty pages. 

Cancellation, factoring, proportion, evolution, and involution 
should be retained. Cancellation and factoring should be 
strongly emphasized owing to their immense value in 
shortening work in arithmetic, algebra, and in more ad- 30 
vanced subjects. Some drill in the Metric System should 
not be omitted. 

J. As to mental arithmetic : Till the end of the fourth year 
the pupil does not need a text-book of mental arithmetic. So 
far his work in arithmetic should be about equally divided 35 
between written and mental. At the beginning of the fifth 
year, in addition to his written arithmetic, he should begin a 



102 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

mental arithmetic and continue it three years, reciting at least 
four mental arithmetic lessons each week. The length of the 
recitation should be twenty minutes. A pupil well drilled in 
mental arithmetic at the end of the seventh year, if the school 
5 age begins at six, is far better prepared to study algebra than the 
one who has not had such a drill. There are a few problems in 
arithmetic that can be solved more easily by algebra than by the 
ordinary processes of arithmetic, but there are many numerical 
problems in equations of the first degree that can be more 

lo easily handled by mental arithmetic than by algebra. To attack 
arithmetical problems by algebra is very much like using a 
tremendous lever to lift a feather. Those who have found a 
great stumbling-block in arithmetical " conundrums," have, if 
the inside facts were known, been looking in the wrong direc- 

iStion. A deficiency of "number-brain-cells" will afford an 
adequate explanation. 

/].. Rearrangement of subjects : There should be a rearrang- 
ing of the topics in arithmetic so that one subject naturally 
leads up to. the next. As an illustration, it is easily seen that 

20 whole numbers and fractions can be treated together, and that 
with United States money, when the dime is reached, is the 
proper time to begin decimals, and that when "a square" in 
surface measure first comes up, the next step is the square of a 
number as well as its square root, and that solid measure logic- 

25 ally lands the learner among cubes and cube-roots. When he 
learns that 1728 cubic inches make one cubic foot he is pre- 
pared to find the edge of the cube. What is meant here is 
pointing the way to the next above. All depends upon the 
teacher's ability to lead the pupil to see conditions and rela- 

30 tions. My contention is that truth, so far as one is capable of 
taking hold of it when it is properly presented, is always a 
simple affair. 

5. As to algebra : If algebra be commenced at the middle of 
the seventh year, let the pupil go at it in earnest, and keep at 

35 it till he has mastered it. Here the best opportunities will be 
afforded him to connect his algebraic knowledge to his arith- 
metical knowledge. He builds the one on top of the other. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. IO3 

The skillful teacher always insists that the learner shall estab- 
lish and maintain this relationship between the two subjects. 
To switch around the other way appears to me to be the same 
as to omit certain exercises in the common algebra, because 
they are more briefly and elegantly treated in the calculus. It 5 
is admitted that a higher branch of mathematics often throws 
much light on the lower branches, but these side-lights should 
be employed for the purpose of leading the learner onward to 
broader generalizations. Unless one sees the lower clearly, the 
higher is obscure. Build solidly the foundation on arith- 10 
mctic — written and mental — and the higher branches will be 
more easily mastered and time saved. 

History of the United States 

In teaching this branch in the public schools, there does not 
appear, so far as I can see, any substantial reason why the 
pupils should not study and recite the history of the Rebel- 15 
lion in the same manner that they do the Revolutionary War. 
The pupils discuss the late war and the causes that led to it 
with an impartiality of feeling that speaks more for their good 
sense and clear judgment than any other way by which their 
knowledge can be tested. They may not get hold of all 20 
the causes involved in that conflict, but they get enough to 
understand the motives which caused the armies to fight so 
heroically, and why the people, both North and South, staked 
everything on the issue. Just as the men who faced each 
other for four years and met so often in a death grapple will 25 
sit down now and quietly talk over their trials, sufferings, and 
conflicts, so do their children talk over these same stirring 
scenes. They, too, so far as my experience extends, are 
singularly free from bitterness and prejudice. It is certainly 
a period of history that they should study. 30 

The spelling-book 

In addition to the " spelling-lists," I would supplement 
with a good spelling-book. So far, no " word-list,'" however 



104 RKPOKT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

well selected, has supplied the i)lace of a spelling-book. 
All those sehools that threw out the spelling-book and 
undertook to teach spelling incidentally or by word-lists failed, 
and for the same reason that grammar, arithmetic, geography, 
sand other branches, cannot be taught incidentally as the pupil 
or the class reads Robinson Crusoe, or any other similar work. 
It is an independent study and as such should be pursued. 

James M. Greenwood, 
Superintendent of Schools, Kansas City, Mo. 



While affixing my signature to the report of this Committee 
as expressing substantial agreement with most of its leading 

iopro[)ositions, I beg leave also to indicate my dissent from cer- 
tain of its recommendations and to suggest certain additions 
which, in my judgment, the report requires. 

I. There are other forms of true correlation which should 
be included with the four mentioned in the first part of the 

15 report and which shoukl be as clearly and fully treated as are 
these four. 

The first is that form of correlation which is popularly 
understood by the name, and which is also called by some 
writers, concentration, co-ordination, unification, and alludes 

20 in general to a division of studies into content and forni ; by 
content meaning that upon which it is fitting that the mind of 
the child should dwell, and by form the means or modes of 
expression by which thoughts are communicated. Or, it may 
be thus expressed : The true content of education is, (i), phi- 

25 losophy or the knowledge of man as to his motives and hidden 
springs of action indicated in history and literature, and (2), 
science, the knowledge of nature and its manifestations and 
laws. Its form is art, which is the deliberate, purposeful, and 
effective expression to others of that which has been produced 

30 within man by contact with other men and with nature, and is 
commonly referred to as divided into various arts, such as 
reading, writing, drawing, making, and modeling. Tiie relation 
of content and form is that of principle and subordinate, the 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. I05 

latter receiving its chief value from the former. In a true 
education they are so presented to the mind of the child that 
he instinctively and unconsciously grasps this relation and is 
thereby lifted into a higher plane of thinking and living than 
if the various arts are taught, as they too commonly are, with- 5 
out reference to a noble content. This relation of form to 
content is vaguely referred to in the report, but nowhere 
definitely treated. It seems to me that it is a true form of 
correlation, and, as such, deserves special and definite treat- 
ment. Moreover, it is at present much in the minds of the 10 
teachers of this country, often in forms that are misleading 
and harmful. The fact that it adds the important element of 
interest to the dry details of common school life makes it 
especially attractive to progressive and earnest teachers, and 
this Committee should recognize its importance and make such 15 
an utterance upon it as will guide the average teacher to a 
clear comprehension of its meaning and to a wise use of it in 
the schoolroom. 

Second, there is a still higher form of correlation which is 
definitely referred to later in the report as that " of the several 20 
branches of human learning in the unity of the spiritual view 
furnished by religion to our civilization." This in the report 
is assigned absolutely to the province of higher education. 
While I do not wish to dissent wholly from this view, since it 
is doubtless true that this higher unity cannot be comprehen- 25 
sively stated for the use of a child, yet a wise teacher can so 
present subjects to even a young child that a sense of the unity 
of all knowledge will, to a certain degree, be unconsciously 
developed in his mind. In regard to certain of the great 
divisions of human knowledge, this relation is so evident that 30 
they cannot be properly presented at all unless the relation be 
made clear. Such studies are history and geography. 

2. The recommendations upon the subject of language 
should be broadened to cover the production of good English 
by the child himself, with the suggestion of suitable topics and 35 
proper methods. This report confines itself to the absorptive 
side of education and ignores that development of power over 



Io6 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

nature, man, and self, which comes from free exercise of facul- 
ties and free expression of thought. The study of language 
as something for the child to use himself, the great means by 
which he is to assert his place in civilization, and exert his 
5 influence for good, is nowhere referred to except in the vaguest 
way. This statement in regard to language applies almost 
equally well to drawing, and here is made evident the impor- 
tance of the form of correlation to which I have just referred. 
The proper material for the training of the child in expression 

lois that which is furnished by the study of man and nature. 
His mind being filled with high themes, he asserts his individu- 
ality, expresses himself in regard to them, and thereby gains 
at once both a closer and clearer comprehension of what he 
has studied, and also the power by which he may become a 

15 factor in his generation. 

3. I would wish to omit the word " weekly " where it occurs 
in the discussion of the subjects of general history and science, 
unless it be understood to mean that an amount of time in the 
school year equivalent to sixty minutes weekly be given to 

20 each of these subjects. It is often better to condense these 
studies into certain portions of the year, giving more time to 
them each week and using them as the basis, to a certain 
degree, of language work. I believe that, especially with 
young children, clearer concepts are produced by such con- 

25 nected study, pursued for fewer weeks, than by lessons seven 
days apart. 

4. In my judgment manual training should not be limited 
to the seventh and eighth grades, but should begin in the 
kindergarten with the simple study of form from objects and 

30 the reproduction in paper of the objects presented, and should 
extend, in a series of carefully graded lessons, through all the 
grades, leaving, however, the heavier tools, such as the plane, 
for the seventh and eighth grades. By these means an inter- 
est is kept up in the various human industries, sympathy for 

35 all labor is created, and a certain degree of skill is developed ; 
moreover the interest of the pupils in their school is greatly 
enhanced. Manual training has often proved the magnet by 



Ox\ CORRELATION OF STUDIES. I07 

which boys at the restless age have been kept in school instead 
of leaving for some gainful occupation. 

5. i desire to suggest that geometry may be so taught as to 
be a better mathematical study than algebra to succeed or ac- 
company arithmetic in the seventh and eighth grades. I do not 5 
refer particularly to inventional geometry, to which the Com- 
mittee accords a slighting attention, but to constructive geom- 
etry and the simplest propositions in demonstrative geometry, 
thus involving the comprehension of the elementary geometric 
forms and their more obvious relations. This study may be 10 
made of especial interest in connection with manual training 
and drawing, while it presents fewer dif^culties to the imma- 
ture mind than the abstractions of algebra, since it connects 
more directly with the concrete, by which its presentation may 
often be aided. 15 

6. While agreeing fully with the majority of the Committee 
that the full scientific method should not be applied to the 
study of elementary science by young children, yet I am com- 
pelled to favor more of experimentation and observation by 
the child, and less of telling by the teacher than the report 20 
would seem to favor. 

7. I would go farther than the majority of the Committee, 
and insist that, except in rare cases, there should be no special- 
ization of the teaching force below the High School, and that 
even in the first years of the High School, so far as possible, 25 
specialization should be subordinated to a general care of the 
child's welfare and oversight of his methods of study, which 
are impossible when a corps of teachers give instruction, each 
in one subject, and see the student only during the hour of 
recitation. 30 

8. While in the main I agree with the bald statements under 
the head " Correlation by synthesis of studies," since reference 
is made to only a very artificial mode of synthesis not at all in 
vogue in this country, I must dissent emphatically from this 
portion of the report as by inference condemning a most im-35 
portant department of correlation, to which I have referred 
earlier. The doctrine of concentration is not necessarily arti- 



I08 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

ficial ; rather it refers to the higher unity, of which this Com- 
mittee has spoken in glowing terms as belonging to the prov- 
ince of higher education. It also includes the division of the 
school curriculum into content and form, which this Committee 
5 infcrentially adopts in its treatment of language. I do not 
believe, any more than do the majority of the Committee, 
that the entire course of study can be literally and exactly 
centered about a single subject, nor do I believe in any arti- 
ficial correlation ; but there is a natural relation of all knowl- 
lo edges, which this Committee admits in various places, and 
which is the basis of a proper synthesis of studies, according 
to the psychological principal of apperception. 

9. If by the term " oral," as applied to lessons in biography 
and in natural science, the Committee means, as the word would 

15 imply, that the instruction is to be given in the form of lec- 
tures by the teacher, I cannot in full agree with the Commit- 
tee's conclusions. As I have already stated, in natural science 
the work should be largely that of observation, and in history 
and biography, while in the very lowest grades the teachers 

20 should tell the children stories, as soon as it is possible the 
desired information should be obtained by the student through 
reading. To this end the reading lesson in school should be 
properly correlated with his other studies, and he should be 
advised as to his home reading. The information thus 

25 obtained should be the subject of conversation in the class, 
and should furnish the material for much of the written lan- 
guage work of the children. 

10. I must dissent emphatically and entirely from that porr 
tion of the report which recommends that a text-book in 

30 grammar be introduced into the fifth year of the child's school 
life. It is a question in my mind whether it would not be 
better if the text-book were not introduced into the grades 
below the High School at all. Certainly it should not appear 
before the seventh year. Such knowledge of grammar as will 

35 familiarize the child with the structure of the sentence, the 
basis of all language, and as will enable him to use correctly 
forms of speech which the necessities of expression require, 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. IO9 

should be given orally by the teacher in connection with the 
child's written work, when needed ; but against the introduction 
of a text-book upon grammar, the most abstruse of all the sub- 
jects of the school curriculum, when the pupil is not more than 
ten years old, I must protest. Instead of that the child 5 
should devote much time, some every day, to writing upon 
proper themes in the best English he can command, furnish 
ing occasion to the teacher to correct such errors as he may 
make, and acquiring by use acquaintance with the correct 
forms of grammar. If, as will doubtless be the case in most 10 
cities, local conditions render the introduction of Latin into 
the eighth grade inadvisable, this study of grammar may be 
made in that grade somewhat more intensive. 

II. If by a text-book in geography is meant that which is 
commonly understood by the term, and not simply geographi- 15 
cal reading matter, in my judgment, it should not be intro- 
duced earlier than the fifth year. 

. These suggestions and expressions of dissent, if approved 
by the Committee, would necessitate some change in the pro- 
gramme submitted, the most important of which would be the 20 
making room for the production of English in the grades. 
This could be provided in the first and second grades by tak- 
ing some of the time devoted to penmanship and doing the 
work partly in connection with the reading classes. In the 
third and fourth grades it should take some of the time 25 
devoted to penmanship and should be studied also in connec- 
tion with geography and reading, and in the fifth and sixth 
grades it should take all of the time given to grammar. 

I regret to be compelled to express dissent upon so many 
points, but as most of then] appear to me vital and as the 30 
differences appear to be not merely superficial but funda- 
mental, affecting and affected by one's entire educational creed, 
I cannot do otherwise. To most of the report I most gladly 
give my assent and approval. 

Charles B. Gilbert, 
Superintendent of Schools, St. Paul, Minn. 



no REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

I agree most heartily with the main features of the fore- 
going report of the sub-committee on correlation of studies 
It is so admirable in its analysis of subjects and in its state- 
ment of comparative education values, and so suggestive in its 
5 practical applications to teaching, that I regret to find myself 
appearing in any way to dissent from its conclusions. Indeed 
my principal objection is not against anything contained in the 
report (unless it be against a possible inference which might 
be drawn at one point), but it refers rather to what seems to 

lome to be an omission. 

In addition to all the forms of correlation recommended in 
the report, it seems to me possible to make a correlation of 
subjects in a programme in such way that the selection of sub- 
ject-matter maybe to some extent from all fields of knowledge. 

15 These selections should be such as are related to one another 
so as to be mutually helpful in acquisition. They should be 
the main features of knowledge in the different departments. 

These different departments from which the chosen sub- 
jects should be taken must be fundamental ones and must be 

2osufificiently numerous to represent universal culture. The 
report itself indicates conclusively what these are. 

Reference is made in the report to various attempts that 
have been made to correlate subjects of study. 

A very just criticism is made upon that attempt at correla- 

25 tion by the use of the story of Robinson Crusoe as a center of 
correlation. It is distinctly pointed out in the report that the 
experiences of Robinson Crusoe are lacking in many of the 
elements of universal culture, and in many elements of educa- 
tion needed to adjust the individual properly to the civiliza- 

30 tion of our time and country. It is equally evident that the 
attempt to make this story the center of correlation leads 
directly to trivial exercises in other subjects in order to make 
them " correlate " with Robinson Crusoe. It is also shown in 
the report that it naturally leads to fragmentary knowledge 

35 of many subjects very much inferior to that clear, logically 
connected knowledge of a subject which may be had by pur- 
suing it without reference to correlating it with all others. 



ox CORRELATION OF STUDIES. Ill 

It is at this point that in my judgment a wrong inference 
is permitted by the report. 

It does not, as it seems to me, follow that, because correla- 
tion based on Robinson Crusoe is a failure, all correlations 
having the same general purpose will necessarily prove 5 
failures. For my own part I do not believe that correlation 
needs any "center," outside the child and its natural activi- 
ties. If, however, it seems wiser to give special prominence 
to any given field of acquisition, it should, in my judgment, 
be accorded to language and its closely related subjects — 10 
reading, spelling, writing, composing, study of literature, etc., 
etc. Indeed language as a mode of expression is organically 
related to thinking, in all fields of knowledge, as form is 
related to content. A "system" or " programme " of cor- 
relation on this basis would seek for fundamental ideas in 15 
all the leading branches and make them themes of thought 
and occasions of language exercises. The selections would 
omit all trivialities in all subjects, and would not attempt to 
correlate for the mere sake of correlation ; but would seek to 
correlate wherever by such correlation kindred themes may be 20 
made to illuminate one another. To illustrate, concrete prob- 
lems in arithmetic would be sought that would clearly 
develop and illustrate mathematical ideas and their applica- 
tion ; but in a secondary way these problems would be sought 
for in the various departments of concrete knowledge — 25 
geography, history, physics, chemistry, astronomy, meteor- 
ology, political, industrial, or domestic economy. But none of 
these themes would be so relied upon for problems as to com- 
pel one to choose unreasonable or trivial relations on which 
to base them. The problems themselves should represent 30 
true and important facts and relations of the other subjects 
as surely and rigidly as they should involve correct mathe- 
matical principles ; and all such exercises should be rightly 
related to the child's education in language. 

In like manner, when a child is engaged in nature study of 35 
any kind, some valuable problems in mathematics may be 
found rightly related both to the subject directly in hand and 



112 . REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

the child's natural progress in arithmetic. Also many of the 
lessons in nature study are directly related to some of the 
finest literature ever produced, in which analogies of nature 
are made the means of expression for the finest and most 
5 delicate of the human experiences. When the child has 
mastered the physical facts on which the literary inspiration is 
based is the true time to give him the advantage of the study 
of such literature. These ideas are not only rightly related 
to one another, but to the mind itself. It is, so to speak, the 

10 nascent moment when the mind can easily and fully master 
what might else remain an impenetrable mystery ; and all be- 
cause subjects and occasion have come into happy conjunction. 
This is not the place in which to attempt any elaboration 
of such a system of correlation. But I feel that its absence 

15 from the report may make many persons feel that the latter. 

is so far incomplete. 

L. H. Jones, 

Superintendent of Schools, Cleveland, O. 



With the main lines of thought in this report I find myself 
in agreement. With many of its details, however, I am not in 
accord. I regret to have to express my dissent from its con- 
20 elusions in the following particulars: 

1. The report makes too little of the uses of grammar as 
supplying canons of criticism which enable the pupil to cor- 
rect his own English, and as furnishing a key (grammatical 
analysis) that gives him the power to see the meaning of 

25 obscure or involved sentences. 

2. For the study of literature, complete works are to be pre- 
ferred to the selections found in school readers. 

3. That species of language exercise known as paraphras- 
ing I regard as harmful. 

30 4. The study of number should not be omitted from the first 
year in school. Practice in the primary operations of arith- 
metic should not be omitted from the seventh and eighth 
years. The quadratic equation should be reserved for the 
Hi2:h School. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. II 3 

5. The foreign language introduced into the elementary 
school course should be a modern language — French or 
German. Latin should be reserved for those who have time 
and opportunity to master its literature. 

6. In the general programme of studies, the school day is 5 
cut up into too many short periods. The tendency of such a 
programme as that in the text would be to destroy repose of 
mind and render reflection almost an impossibility. 

7. I desire to express my agreement with the opinions 
stated in Sections 2, 3, 6, and 9 of Mr. Gilbert's dissenting 10 
opinion ; and, in the main, with what Mr. Jones says on the 
correlation of studies. 

William H. Maxwell, 
Superintendent of Schools, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Ill 

REPORT OF THE 

SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE ORGANIZATION OF 
CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS 

It is understood that the Committee is to treat of city 
school systems which are so large that persons chosen by the 
people to manage them, and serving without pay, cannot be 
expected to transact all the business of the system in person, 
5 nor to have personal knowledge of all business transactions ; and 
which are also so large that one person employed to supervise 
the instruction cannot be assumed to personall}' manage or 
direct all of the details thereof; but must, in each case, act 
under plans of organization and administration established by 

lolaw, and through assistants or representatives. 

The end for which a school system exists is the instruction 
of the children, the word instruction being used with the 
meaning it attains in the mind of a well-educated person, if not 
in the mind of an educational expert. 

15 To secure this end, no plan of organization alone will 
suffice. Nothing can take the place of a sincere desire for 
good schools, of a fair knowledge of what good schools are 
and of what will make them, of a public spirit and a moral sense 
on the part of the people, which are spontaneous or which can 

20 be appealed to with confidence. Fortunately the interest 
which the people have in their own children is so large, and 
the anxiety of the community for public order and security is 
so great, that public sentiment may ordinarily be relied upon, 
or may be aroused to action, to choose proper representa- 

25 tives and take proper measures for the administration of the 

schools. If, in any case, this is not so, there is little hope of 

efficient schools. Wherever it is so, it alone will not suffice; 

but proper organization may become the instrument of public 

114 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. II 5 

sentiment and develop schools that will be equal to the 
needs of all and become the safeguards of citizenship, 

Efificient schools can be secured only by providing suitable 
buildings and appliances and by keeping them in proper 
order, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, by employ- 5 
ing, organizing, aiding, and directing teachers so that the 
instruction shall have life and power to accomplish the great 
end for which schools are maintained. 

The circumstances of the case naturally and quickly separate 
the duties of administration into two great departments: one 10 
which manages the business affairs, and the other which super- 
vises the instruction. The business affairs of the school 
system may be transacted by any citizens of common honesty, 
correct purposes, and of good business experience and 
sagacity. The instruction will be ineffective and abnormally 15 
expensive unless put upon a scientific educational basis and 
supervised by competent educational experts. 
)L-'There will be a waste of money and effort, and a lack of 
results, unless the authorities of these two departments are 
sympathetic with each other; that is, unless, on the one hand, 20 
the business management is sound, is appreciative of good 
teaching, looks upon it as a scientific and professional employ- 
ment, and is alert to sustain it ; and unless, on the other hand, 
the instructors are competent and self-respecting, know what 
good business management is, are glad to uphold it, and are 25 
able to respect those who are charged with responsibility for it. 

To secure efficiency in these departments, there must be 
adequate authority and quick public accountability. The 
problem is not merely to secure some good schoolhouses, but 
good schoolhouses wherever needed, and to avoid the use of 30 
all houses which are not suitable; it is not to get some good 
teaching, but to prevent all bad teaching and to advance all 
the teaching to the highest possible point of special training, 
of professional spirit, and of life-giving power. All of the 
business matters must be intrusted to competent business 35 
hands and managed upon sound business principles; and all of 
the instruction must be put upon a professional basis.' To 



Il6 REPORT OK THE COMMITTEE OF PTFTEEN 

insure this, there must be deliberation and wisdom in deter- 
mining policy, and then the power to do what is determined 
upon must be present and capable of exercise, and the respon- 
sibility f©r the proper exercise of the power must, in each 
5 case, be individual and immediate. 

It is imperative that we discriminate between the legislative 
and the executive action in organizing and administering the 
schools. The influences which enter into legislative action 
looking to the general organization and work of the schools 

lomust necessarily and fundamentally flow directly from the 
people and be widely spread. The greater the number of 
people, in proportion to the entire population, who can be led 
to take a positive interest and an active part in securing good 
schools the better will the schools be, provided the people can 

1 5 secure the complete execution of their purposes and plans. 
But experience has clearly shown that many causes inter- 
vene to prevent the complete execution of such plans; that all 
the natural enemies of sound administration scent plenty of 
plunder and are especiall}' active here; that good school 

20 administration requires much strength of character, much 
business experience, much technical knowledge, and can be 
measurably satisfactory only when the responsibility is ade- 
quate and the penalties for maladministration are severe. 
Decentralization in making the plan and determining what 

25 shall be done, and centralization in executing the plan and in 
doing what is to be done, are perhaps equally important. 

It should be remembered that the character of the school 
work of a city is not merely a matter of local interest, and that 
the maintenance of the schools docs not rest merely or mainly 

30 upon local authority. The people of the municipality, acting, 
and ordinarily glad to act, but in any event being required to 
act, under and pursuant to the law which has been ordained 
by the sovereign authority of the State, establish and maintain 
schools. They must have the taxing power which the State 

35 alone possseses in order to enable them to proceed at all. 
They must regard the directions which the State sees fit to 
give as to the essential character of the schools, when it exer- 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. II7 

cises in their behalf, or when it delegates to them, the power 
of taxation. 

The plan should be flexible for good while inflexible for 
evil. After meeting essential requirements, the people of the 
municipality may and should be empowered to proceed as much 5 
farther as they will in elaborating a system of schools. The 
higher the plane of average intelligence, and the more generally 
and the more directly the people act in deciding what shall 
be done, and the greater the facility and completeness with 
which the intelligence of the city is able to secure the proper 10 
execution of its plans by officers appointed for that purpose, 
the more elaborate and the more efficient will be the schools. 

It is idle to suggest that centering executive functions is un- 
wisely taking power away from the people. The people cannot 
execute plans themselves. The authority to do so must neces- 15 
sarily be delegated. The question simply is: Shall it be given 
to a number of persons, and, if so, to how many? Or, to only 
one? This question is to be decided by experience, and it is 
of course true that experience has not been uniform. But it 
is doubtless true that the general experience of the communi-20 
ties of the country has shown that where purely executive 
functions are conferred upon a number of persons, jointly, they 
yield to antagonistic influences and shift the responsibility 
from one to another; and that centering the responsibility 
for the proper discharge of executive duties upon a single 25 
person, who gets the credit of good work and must bear the 
disgrace or penalty of bad work, and who can quickly be held 
accountable for misdeeds and inefficiency, has secured the 
fullest execution of public plans and the largest results. To 
call this "centralization," with the meaning which commonly 30 
attaches to the word, is inaccurate. Instead of removing the 
power from the people, it is keeping the power closer to the 
people and making it possible for the citizen, in his individual 
capacity, and for organized bodies of citizens, to secure the 
execution of plans according to the purpose and intent with 35 
which those plans were made. Indeed it is safe to say that 
experience has shown that it is the only way in which to pre- 



Il8 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

vent the frequent thwarting of the popular will and the 
defiance of individuals whose interests are ignored or whose 
rights are invaded. 

So much, it seems to us, is strongly supported both by 
5 reason and by experience, and is clearly manifest. 

But all the people of a city whose population is numbered by 
hundreds of thousands or millions cannot meet in a legislative 
assemblage to formulate plans for school government, any more 
than they can all meet to make plans for municipal government. 

loThey cannot even gather in mass meetings, and, if they could, 

mass meetings cannot deliberate. Even their legislative action 

must flow not from a primary but from a representative assembly. 

What shall such a representative legislative body be called? 

How shall it be chosen? Of how many members shall it be 

15 composed? And what shall be its powers? These and other 
similar questions are all-important and must be determined by 
the law-making power of the State. The sentiments of the 
city, as expressed through the local organizations and particu- 
larly through the newspapers, must of course have much 

2,(/weight with the legislature if there is anything like unanimity 
or any very strong preponderance of opinion in the city; for 
the plan for which a comrkmnity expresses a preference will 
surely be likely to operate most effectually in that community. 
But the local sentiment is not conclusive. When divided, it 

25 is no guide at all. The legislature is to take all the circum- 
stances into consideration, take the world's experience for its 
guide, and, acting under its responsibilities, it must exercise 
its high powers in ways that will build up a system of schools 
in the city likely to articulate with the State educational 

30 system and become the effective instrument of developing the 
intelligence and training the character of the children of the 
city up to the ideals of the State. 

The name of the legislative branch of the school govern- 
ment is not material, and the one to which the people are 

35 accustomed may well continue to be employed. There is no 
name more appropriate than the "Board of Education." 

The manner of selecting the members of this leeislative 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. II9 

body may turn somewhat upon the circumstances of the city. 
We are strongly of the opinion that in view of the well-known 
difificulty about securing the attendance of the most interested 
and intelligent electors at school elections, as well as because 
of the apparent impossibility of freeing school elections from 5 
political or municipal issues, the better manner of selection is 
by appointment. 

If the members of the board are appointed, the mayor of the 
city is likely to be the ofHcial to whom the power of appoint- 
ment may most safely be intrusted. The mayor is notsug-io 
gested because his office should sustain any relations to the 
school system, but in spite of the fact that it does not and 
should not. The school system should be absolutely emanci- 
pated from partisan politics and completely dissociated from 
municipal business. But we think the appointments should 15 
be made by some one person rather than by a board. The 
mayor is representative of the whole city and all its interests. 
While not chosen with any reference to the interests of the 
schools, he may be assumed to have information as to the fit- 
ness of citizens for particular responsibilities and to be desirous 20 
of promoting the educational interests of the people. If he is 
given the power of appointment, he should be particularly 
enjoined, by law, to consider only the fitness of individuals 
and to pay no regard to party affiliations, unless it be particu- 
larly to see to it that no one political party has an overwhelm- 25 
ing preponderance in the board. The mayor very commonly 
feels constrained, under the pressure of party expediency, 
to make so many questionable appointments that he is only 
too glad, and particularly so when en'joined by the law, to 
make very acceptable appointments of members of school 30 
boards, in order that he may gratify the better sentiment of 
the city. We are confident that the problem of getting a 
representative board of education is not so difficult as many 
think, if the board is not permitted to make patronage of work 
and of salaried positions at the disposal of the public school 35 
system. Under such circumstances, and more and more so as 
we have approached such circumstances, appointment in the 



120 



Kivi'oKi' (»|.' line coMMii'i'i';!'; <)i' I'll 'ii;i;n 



way \vc snj.Tj.n'sl li.is piotluccd tlur hcsl school IxKiids in the 
larger cities of llu- coiiiilry. 

Alt(>m])ls to eliminate p.iit isaiishii) froin school achniiiistra- 
tioM, l)y arrayiii!'; an i"([iial lunuher of partisans aj^^ainst each 
Sothcr in school ho.irds do not at least aim at an ideal. At 
times sncli hoards have worked well .md at olheis have led to 
mischievons conse(iut;nces. The trne conrse is lo insist that 
all who havi> any sii.iie in the manajjenuMit of the schools shall 
divest t hemselves of pail isanship, wlu:t lici political oi" religious, 

loinsnch n)an,i;.M'incnl , and I'.ive themselves wholly to the hi_i;h 
inti-rests inlrnsted to them. If it he said that this cannot he 
realized, it may he answtMcd, vvithont admit tini; it, that even 
il that well" so it would he no re.ison why the friends of the 
schools should not assiil the sonnd princi[)le and secure its 

15 enforcement as far as possihle. We must certainly give no 
counti-naiUH- to makeshifts which experic-iu-e has shown to be 
misleadiii!; and eN|)i-nsive. The rijdit must pre\'ail in the end, 
and the eailit-r and more stronidy it is contended for the 
sooner it will prevail. 

20 'I'he nu'inhiMs of school hoards shcuiKl ]ic repn-scMitativi- of 
the whole population aiul of all tlu-ir common educational 
interi'sts, and should not hi- chost-n to represent an\' waid or 
snhdivision of the territory or any parly or element in the 
political, ri'liiMons, or social life tluMcof. Where this princi|ile 

25 is not enforced, the memhers will fi-el hound to ;;ain what 
ailvantat;e they cm for thc> snh-district or special interests they 
represent; hitler ccMilests will ensue, and the common interests 
will suffer. 

The nnmher of the miMuhers of a hoard of (."dncation shouUl 

3obc small. In citiivs of less than Scxi.ixxMidiahitants it shouKl 
not hi" more than nine, and [)referahl\' no{ more than fwc. In 
thexeiA' larj^u'st cities it may well he exteiuliNl to I'lfteen. 

The ti-rm for which memheis are appointed should he a 
loin; one, sa\' live }'ears. 

35 We think it an excellent plan to provide for two hranchcs 
and sets of powers in the hoard of education; the one to ha\e 
the veto power, or .it liMst to .ut as a check upon the .icts of 



ON OKCANI/A TION ol' CII'N' SCHOOLS. I2[ 

the other. 'I'his may be aci'()in[)h'shi-(l by ciimI in;-, tin- oKice 
of .School Directoi- and charjMii^; llur iiuiiinlxiit with exccu- 
tivi; <liities on I he business side of the acbninistratioii, and by 
givinjj^ liiin the veto over the acts of the other branch of the 
board, which may be called the School Couiuil. I'.cyoiid 5 
the care and lonseivatism which arc; insured by two sets of 
powers acting against each other, this [)laii has the atlvantay;c 
of ^ivin^ the chief executive officer of the system just as hi^h 
and ^ood a title as that of members of the board; it is likely 
to secure a more rcprest'utalive man, and jdves him lai!.;cr [)re- 10 
relatives in the; discharge of his executive duties and better 
Standing- amon^ the people, particularly amonj^ the employees 
and teachers associated with the public school system. 

If this plan is adopted, the school diicctor shoidd be 
re(piired to [dve his entire time to the duties of his position 15 
and be ()ropeily comi)ensated therefor. lb; should be the 
custodian ol all pro|)erty and should ai)poinl all assistants, 
janitors, and woikinen authoriz(;d by the board for the; caj'e of 
this prop(;rty. lie shoidd }.Mve bond with suniiMent sureties 
and penalties for the faithful and proper dischar^re of all his 20 
dutit;s. lie shoidd be authorized by law to expend funds, 
within a rixc;(l limit, for repairs, a[)pliances, and hel|), without 
the action of the board. All contracts should be made by 
him and shoidd run in his name, and he should be charged 
with the; rt;sponsil)ility of sec;injj that they are faithfully and 25 
completely executed. All contracts involving- more than a 
limited and H.Keil sum of money should be let upon bids to be 
advertised for and opened in i)ublic. He should have a seat 
in the; board of education, should not voli; but should have 
the [jower to veto, either absolutely or conditionally, any of 30 
the acts of the board throupjh a written communication. This 
officer and the school council should together constitute the 
board of education. 

The; board of education should be vested only with lef^isla- 
tivc functions and should Ix; rc;(iuir(;(.l to act wholly throuj,di 35 
formal and recorded resolutions. It should determine and 
direct the j^^eneial |)olicy of the school system. Within r(;ason- 



122 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

able limits, as to amount, it should be given power, in its dis- 
cretion, to levy whatever moneys may be needed for school 
purposes. It should control the expenditure of all moneys 
beyond a fixed and limited amount, which may safely and 
5 advantageously be left to the discretion of the chief executive 
business officer. It should authorize, by general resolutions, 
the appointment of necessary officers and employees in the 
business department, and of the superintendent, assistants, and 
teachers in the department of instruction, but it should be 

lo allowed to make no appointments other than its own clerk. 
With this necessary exception, single officers should be 
charged with responsibility for all appointments. 

This plan, not in all particulars, but in the essential ones, has 
been on trial in the city of Cleveland, O., for nearly three years, 

1 5 and has worked with very general acceptability. If this plan 
is adopted, the chief executive officer of the system is already 
provided for and his duties have already been indicated. 
Otherwise it will be necessary for the board to appoint such 
an officer. In that event the law should declare him independ- 

2oent, confer upon him adequate authority for the performance 
of executive duties, and charge him with responsibility. But 
we know of no statutory language capable of making an officer 
appointed by a board, and dependent upon the same board for 
supplies, independent in fact of the personal wishes of the 

25 members of that board. And right here is v/herc the troubles 
rush in to discredit and damage the school system. 

We now come to the subject of paramount importance in 
making a plan for the school government in a great city, 
namely, the character of the teaching force and the quality of 

30 the instruction. A city school system may be able to with- 
stand some abuses on the business side of its administration 
and continue to perform its function with measurable success, 
but wrongs against the instruction must, in a little time, prove 
fatal. The strongest language is none too strong here. The 

35 safety of the Republic, the security of American citizenship, 
are at stake. Government by the people has no more dan- 
gerous pitfall in its road than this, that in the mighty cities of 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 1 23 

the land the comfortable and intelligent masses, who are dis- 
criminating more and more closely about the education of 
their children, shall become dissatisfied with the social status 
of the teachers and the quality of the teaching in the common 
schools. In that event, they will educate their children at 5 
their own expense, and the public schools will become only 
good enough for those who can afford no better. The only 
way to avert this is by maintaining the instruction upon a 
purely scientific and professional footing. This is entirely 
practicable, but it involves much care and expense in training 10 
teachers, the absolute elimination of favoritism from appoint- 
ments, the security of the right to advancement, after appoint- 
ment, on the basis of merit, and a general leadership which is 
kindly, helpful, and stimulating to individuals, wliich can 
secure harmonious co-operation from all the members, and 15 
which lends energy and inspiration to the whole body. 

This cannot be secured if there is any lack of authority, and 
experience amply proves that it will not be secured if there is 
any division of responsibility. The whole matter of instruction 
must be placed in the hands of a superintendent of instruction, 20 
with independent powers and adequate authority, who is 
charged with full responsibility. 

The danger of inconsiderate or improper action by one 
vested with such powers is of course possible, but it is remote. 
Regardless of the legal powers with which he may be indi-25 
vidually vested, he is in fact and in law a part of a large 
system. He must act through others and in the presence of 
multitudes. There is great publicity about all he does. 
When a single officer carries such responsibility he is at the 
focus of all eyes. There are the strongest incentives to right 30 
action. Without discovery, at least by many persons, he can- 
not act wrongfully. If he is required to act under and pur- 
suant to a plan, the details of which have been announced, 
and of which we shall speak in a moment, a wrongful act will 
be known to the world and he must bear the responsibility of 35 
it, and the danger of maladministration is almost eliminated. 

Moreover, we must consider the alternative. It is not in 



124 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

doubt. All who have had any contact with the subject are 
familiar with it. It is administration by boards or committees, 
the members of which are not competent to manage profes- 
sional matters and develop an expert teaching-force. Yet 
5 they assume, and in most cases honestly, the knowledge 
of the most experienced. They override and degrade a 
superintendent, when they have the power to do so, until he 
becomes their mere factotum. For the sake of harmony and 
the continuance of his position he concedes, surrenders, and 

lo acquiesces in their acts, while the continually increasing teach- 
ing-force becomes weaker and weaker and the work poorer and 
poorer. If he refuses to do this, they precipitate an open 
rupture and turn him out of his position. Then they cloud the 
issues and shift the responsibility from one to another. There 

15 are exceptions, of course, but they do not change the rule. 

It will be unprofitable to mince words about this all-impor- 
tant matter. If the course of study for the public schools of 
a great city is to be determined by laymen, it will not be 
suited to the needs of a community. If teachers are to be 

20 appointed by boards or commi'ttees, the members of which are 
particularly sensitive to the desires of people who have votes 
or influence, looseness of action is inevitable and unworthy 
considerations will frequently prevail. If the action of a 
board or committee be conditioned upon the recommendation 

25 of a superintendent, the plan will not suffice. No one person 
is stronger than the system of which he is a part. Such a plan 
results in contests, between the board and the superintendent, 
and such a contest is obviously an unequal one. There is 
little doubt of the outcome. In recommending for the 

30 appointment of teachers, the personal wishes of members of 
the board, in particular cases, will have to be acquiesced in. 
If a teacher, no matter how unfit, cannot be dropped from the 
list without the approval of a board or committee after they 
have heard from her friends and sympathizers, she will remain 

35 indefinitely in the service. This means a low tone in the 
teaching force and desolation in the work of the schools. If 
the superintendent accepts the situation, he becomes less and 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 12$ 

less capable of developing a professional teaching service. If 
he refuses to accept it, he is very likely to meet humiliation-, 
dismissal is inevitable unless he is strong enough to make him- 
self secure by doing the right thing and going directly to the 
people and winning their approval. 5 

The superintendent of instruction should be charged with 
no duty save the supervision of the instruction, but should 
be charged with the responsibility of making that professional 
and scientific, and should be given the position and authority 
to accomplish that end. 10 

If the board of education is constituted upon the old plan, 
he must be chosen by the board. If it is constituted upon the 
Cleveland plan, he may be appointed by the school director 
with the approval of two-thirds or three-fourths of the council. 
The latter plan seems preferable, for it centralizes the main 15 
responsibility of this important appointment in a single indi- 
vidual. In either case, the law and the sentiment of the city 
should direct that the appointee shall be a person liberally 
educated, professionally trained, one who knows what good 
teaching is, but is also experienced in administration, in touch 2c 
with public affairs and in sympathy with popular feeling. 

The term of the superintendent of instruction should be 
from five to ten years, and until a successor is appointed. In 
our judgment it should be determinate so that there may be a 
time of public examination, but it should be sufficiently long 25 
to enable one to lay foundations and show results without 
being carried under by the prejudices which always follow the 
first operation of efificient or drastic plans. The salary should 
be fixed by law and not subject to change in the middle of a 
term or except by law. 30 

For reasons already suggested, the superintendent, once 
appointed, should have power to appoint from an eligible list 
all assistants and teachers authorized by the board, and 
unlimited authority to assign them to their respective posi- 
tions and reassign them or remove them from the force at his 35 
discretion. 

To secure a position upon the eligible list from which 



126 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

appointments may be made, a candidate, if without experience, 
should be required to complete the full four years' course of 
the city high schools, or its equivalent, and in addition thereto 
pass the examination of the board of examiners, and complete 
5 at least a year's course of professional training in a city normal 
training school under the direction of the superintendent. If 
the candidate has had say three years of successful experience 
as a teacher, he should be eligible to appointment by passing 
an examination held by a general examining board. This 

10 board may be appointed by the board of education, but should 
examine none but graduates of the high school and training 
school unless specially requested so to do by the superintend- 
ent of instruction. The number admitted to the training 
schools should be limited, and the examinations should be 

15 gauged to the prospective needs of the elementary schools, for 
new teachers. The supply of new teachers may well be 
largely, but should not be wholly, drawn from this local 
source. The force will gain fresh vitality by some appoint- 
ments of good and experienced teachers from outside. 

20 The work of putting a large teaching force upon a profes- 
sional basis, of making the teaching scientific and capable of 
arousing minds to action, is so difficult that a la}'man can 
scarcely appreciate it. It has hardly been commenced, it has 
been made possible only when the avenues of approach to the 

25 service have been closed against the unqualified and unworthy. 
After that, the supervision must be close and general as well 
as sympathetic and decisive. The superintendent must have 
expert assistants enough to learn the characteristics and 
measure the work of every member of the force. They must 

30 help and encourage, advise and direct, according to the cir- 
cumstances of each case. The work must be reduced to a 
system and the workers brought into harmonious relations. 
Each room must show neatness and life, and the whole force 
must show ardor and enthusiasm. By directing the reading, 

35 by encouraging an interchange of visits, by organizing clubs for 
self-improvement, by frequent class, grade, and general meet- 
ings, the professional spirit must be aroused and the work 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 12/ 

energized. Those who sliovv teaching power, versatility, 
amiability, reliability, steadiness, and growth, must be re- 
warded with the highest positions; those who lack fiber, who 
have no energy, who are incapable of enthusiasm, who will not 
work agreeably with their associates, must go upon the retired 5 
list. Directness and openness must be encouraged. Attempts 
to invoke social, political, religious, or other outside influences 
to secure preferment must operate to close the door to 
advancement. In general and in particular, bad teaching must 
be prevented. In every room, a firm and kindly management 10 
must prevail and good teaching must be apparent. All must 
work along common lines which will insure general and essen- 
tial ends. Until a teacher can do this and can be relied upon 
to do it, she must be helped and directed; when it is manifest 
she cannot or will not do it, she must be dismissed: when she 15 
shows she can do it and wants to do it, she must be left to 
exercise her own judgment and originality and do it in her 
own way. In the schoolroom, the teacher must be secure 
against interference. In all the affairs of the school, her judg- 
ment must be trusted to the utmost limit of safety. Then 20 
judgment will strengthen and self-respect and public respect 
will grow. The qualities which develop in the teacher will 
develop in the school. To develop these qualities with any 
degree of uniformity, in a large teaching force, requires steady 
and uniform treatment through a long course of years under 25 
superintendence which is professional, strong, just, and cour- 
ageous; which has ample assistance and authority ; which is 
worthy of public confidence and knows how to marshal facts, 
present arguments, and appeal to the intelligence and integrity 
of the community with success. 30 

It is the business of the plan of organization to secure such 
superintendence. It cannot be secured through an ordinary 
board of education operating on the old plan. It is well 
known what the influences are that are everywhere prevalent 
and must inevitably prevent it. It may be secured in the 35 
law, and it must be secured there or it will not be secured 
at all. 



128 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

In concluding this portion of the report, the Committee 
indicates briefly the principles which must necessarily be 
observed in framing a plan of organization and government in 
a large city school system. 
5 First. The affairs of th^e school should not be mixed up 
with partisan contests or municipal business. 

Second. There should be a sharp distinction between legis- 
lative functions and executive duties. 

Third. Legislative functions should be clearly fixed by 

lo statute and be exercised by a comparatively small board, 
each member of which is representative of the whole city. 
This board, within statutory limitations, should determine the 
policy of the system, levy taxes, and control the expenditures. 
It should make no appointments. Every act should be by a 

15 recorded resolution. It seems preferable that this board be 
created by appointment rather than election, and that it be 
constituted of two branches acting against each other. 

Fourth. Administration should be separated into two great 
independent departments, one of which manages the business 

20 interests and the other of which supervises the instruction. 
Each of these should be wholly directed by a single official 
who is vested with ample authority and charged with full 
responsibility for sound administration. 

Fifth. The chief executive officer on the business side 

25 should be charged with the care of all property and with the 
duty of keeping it in suitable condition: he should provide all 
necessary furnishings and appliances : he should make all agree- 
ments and see that they are properly performed : he should 
appoint all assistants, janitors, and workmen. In a word, he 

30 should do all that the law contemplates and all that the board 
authorizes, concerning the business affairs of the school system, 
and when anything goes wrong he should answer for it. He 
may be appointed by the board, but we think it preferable 
that he be chosen in the same way the members of the board 

35 are chosen, and be given a veto upon the acts of the board. 
Sixth. The chief executive officer of the department of 
instruction should be given a long term and may be appointed 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. I29 

by the board. If the board is constituted of two branches, he 
should be nominated by the business executive and confirmed 
by the legislative branch. Once appointed, he should be 
independent. He should appoint all authorized assistants and 
teachers from an eligible list to be constituted as provided by 5 
law. He should assign to duties and discontinue services for 
cause, at his discretion. He should determine all matters 
relating to instruction. He should be charged witli the 
responsibility of developing a professional and enthusiastic 
teaching force and of making all the teaching scientific and lo 
forceful. He must perfect the organization of his department 
and make and carry out plans to accomplish this. If he can- 
not do this in a reasonable time he should be superseded by 
one who can. 

The government of a vast city school system comes to have 15 
an autonomy which is largely its own and almost independent 
of direction or restraint. The volume of business which this 
government transacts is represented only by millions of dol- 
lars: it calls not only for the highest sagacity and the ripest 
experience, but also for much special information relating to 20 
school property and school affairs. Even more important 
than this is the fact that this government controls and deter- 
mines the educational policy of the city and carries on the 
instruction of tens or hundreds of thousands of children. This 
instruction is of little value, and perhaps vicious, unless it is 25 
professional and scientific. This government is representative. 
All citizens are compelled to support it, and all have large 
interests which it is bound to promote. Every parent has 
rights which it is the duty of this school government to pro- 
tect and enforce. When government exacts our support of 30 
public education, when it comes into our homes and takes our 
children into its custody and instructs them according to its 
will, we acquire a right which is as exalted as any right of 
property, or of person, or of conscience, can be; and that is the 
right to know that the environment is healthful, that the man- 35 
agement is kindly and ennobling, and that the instruction is 
rational and scientific. It is needless to say to what extent 



130 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN 

these interests are impeded or blocked, or how commonly 
these rights of citizenship and of parentage are denied or 
defied, or how helpless the individual is who seeks their 
enforcement under the system of school government which 
5 has heretofore obtained in some of the great cities of the 
country. This is not surprising. It is only the logical result 
of the rapid growth of cities, of a marvelous advance in knowl- 
edge of what is needed in the schools, of the antagonism of 
selfish interests by which all public administration and particu- 

lolarly school administration is encompassed, and of the lack of 
plan and system, the confusion of powers, the absence of indi- 
vidual responsibility, in the government of a system of schools. 
By the census of 1890 there are seven cities in the United 
States, each with a population greater than any one of sixteen 

15 States. The aggregate population of twelve cities exceeds the 
aggregate population of twenty States. Government for edu- 
cation certainly requires as strong and responsible an organiza- 
tion as government for any other purpose. These great centers 
of population, with their vast and complex educational prob- 

2olems, have passed the stage when government by the time- 
honored commission will suffice. No popular government 
ever determined the policy and administered the affairs of such 
large bodies of people successfully, ever transacted such a vast 
volume of business satisfactorily, ever promoted high and benefil- 

25 cent ends, ever afforded protection to the rights of each indi- 
vidual of the great multitude, unless in its plan of organization 
there was an organic separation of executive, legislative, and 
judicial functions and powers. All the circumstances of the 
case, and the uniform experience of the world, forbid our expect- 

3oing any substantial solution of the problem we are considering 
until it is well settled in the sentiments of the people that the 
school systems of the greatest cities are only a part of the school 
systems of the States of which these cities form a part, and are 
subject to the legislative authority thereof: until there is a 

35 plan of school government in each city which differentiates 
executive acts from legislative functions; which emancipates 
the lecfislative branch of that government from the influence of 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 13I 

pelf-seekers; which fixes upon individuals the responsibility 
for executive acts, either performed or omitted; which gives 
to the intelligence of the community the power to influence 
legislation and exact perfect and complete execution ; which 
affords to every citizen whose interests are ignored, or whose 5 
rights are invaded, a place for complaint and redress; and 
which puts the business interests upon a business footing, the 
teaching upon an expert basis, and gives to the instruction 
that protection and encouragement which is vital to the 
development of all professional and scientific work. 10 

We have undertaken to indicate the general principles 
which we think should be observed in setting up the frame- 
work of government of a large city school system. While we 
have no thought that any precise form of organization which 
could be suggested, would, in all details, be imperative, we are 15 
confident that the form or plan of organization is of supreme 
consequence, and that any which disregards the principles we 
have pointed out will work to disadvantage or lead to disaster. 

Andrew S. Draper, 
President of the Illinois State University, Champaign, 111. 

W. B. Powell, 
Superintendent of Schools, Washington, D. C. 

A. B. Poland, 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Trenton, N. J. 



I find myself in general accord with the doctrines of the 
report. There is only one feature of it from which I feel 20 
obliged to dissent, and that is an important though not neces- 
sarily a vital one. I refer to the ofifice of school director. I 
see no need of such an officer elected by the people, and I do 
see the danger of his becoming a part of the political organi- 
zation for the dispensation of patronage. 25 

All power and authority in school affairs should reside ulti- 
mately in the board of education, consisting of not more than 
eight persons appointed by the mayor of the city, to hold 
office four years, two members retiring annually and eligible 
for reappointment once and no more. This board should 30 



132 RlCl'ORP OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTEEN. 

appoint as its chief officer a superintendent of instruction, 
whose tenure should be during good behavior and efificiency, 
and whose powers and duties should be to a large extent 
defined by statute law, and not wholly or chiefly by the regu- 
5 lations of the board of education. The superintendent of 
instruction should have a seat and voice but not a vote in the 
board of education. The board of education should also 
appoint a business agent, and define his powers and duties in 
relation to all matters of buildings, repairs, and supplies, sub- 

lostantially as set forth in the report in relation lo the school 
director. 

All teachers should be appointed and annually reappointed 
or recommended by the superintendent of instruction, until 
after a sufficient probation they are appointed on a tenure 

15 during good behavior and efficiency. 

All matters relating to courses of study, text-books, and 
examinations shmild be left to the superintendent and his 
assistants, constituting a body of professional experts who 
should be regarded as alone competent to deal with such 

20 matters, and should be held accountable therefor to the 

board of education only in a general way, and not in i)articular 

details. 

EinviN P. Seaver, 

Superintendent of Schools, Boston, ]\Iass. 



I concur in the recommendations of the Sub-committee on the 
Organization of City School Systems as summarized in the con- 

25 eluding portion of the report, omitting in item Third, the words 
" And that it be constituted of two branches acting against 
each other." Omit Fif/Ii, " But we think it preferable that he 
be chosen in the same way that members of the board are chosen 
and be given veto power upon the acts of the board." I 

30 recommend that the veto power be given to the president of 

the Board. 

Albert G. Lane, 

Superintendent of Schools, Chicago, 111. 



APPENDICES 

I. OPINIONS SUBMITTED TO THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE 
TRAINING OF TEACHERS 

II. OPINIONS SUBMITTED TO THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE 
CORRELATION OF STUDIES 

III. OPINIONS SUBMITTED TO THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE 
ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS 



i33-i34 



APPENDIX I 

OPINIONS SUBMITTED TO THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE 
TRAINING OF TEACHERS 

Following arc the questions in answer to which the opin- 
ions were written : 

1. What should be the lowest age at which a person should 
be permitted to undertake a course of professional work? 

2. What should be the requirements for scholarship to enter 
on such a course ? 

(a) English — Grammar, Historical Grammar, Rhetoric, Lit- 
erature. 
(^) Mathematics — Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry. 

(c) Botany and Zoology. 

(d) Drawing. 
(<?) Music. 
(/) History. 
(g) Geography. 
(/i) Physics. 

(/) Chemistry. 

(J) Foreign languages — French, German, Latin, Greek. 

(/t) Physiology and Hygiene. 

(/) Mineralogy. 

3. Should scholarship be determined by an examination, 
or should a high-school diploma be accepted as evidence? If 
the latter, should a four-years' course be required ? 

4. What should be the duration of the training-school 
course ? 

5. What proportion of this time should be devoted to 
studying principles and methods of education? What pro- 
portion, to the practice of teaching? 

6. To what extent should psychology be studied, and in 
what way ? 

135 



136 APPENDIX. 

7. Along what lines should the observation of children be 
pursued ? 

8. What measurements of children should be made, and 
what apparatus should be required for the purpose ? 

9. In what way should principles of education be derived 
from psychology and allied sciences ? 

10. How far and in what way should the history of educa- 
tion be studied? In what way may the history of education 
be made of practical use to teachers? 

11. In what way should the training in teaching the vari- 
ous subjects of the common-school curriculum be pursued? 

(a) By writing outlines of lessons ? 

(d) By giving lessons to fellow pupil-teachers? 

(c) By the study of books or periodicals devoted to methods 

of teaching? 
{d) By lectures ? 

12. In a model school, should there be a model-teacher 
placed over each class? Or, should there be a model-teacher 
placed over every two classes ? Or, should the pupil-teach- 
ers be held responsible for the teaching of all classes, under 
the direction of a critic-teacher? 

13. What is the most fruitful plan of observing the work of 
model-teachers ? 

14. What is the most fruitful plan of criticising the prac- 
tice work of pupil-teachers? 

15. Should the criticism be made by the teachers of meth- 
odology, or by critic-teachers appointed specially for the pur- 
pose, or by the model-teachers ? 

16. Should the imparting of knowledge, other than psy- 
chology, principles, methods, and history of education, form 
any part of the work of a normal or training school? 

17. How should a pupil-teacher's efificiency be tested in a 
training school? 

18. On what grounds should the diploma of a training 
school be issued ? 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 1 37 



Earl Barnes, Professor of Education, 

Stanford University, Palo Alto, Cal. 

The training of teachers seems to me the most important and 
the most difficult question connected with our work in America 
to-day, and I am glad a systematic effort is being made to gather 
information bearing on it. The conditions vary so widely in our 
country that no one statement will hold for the whole country. 
With a wage in country schools often as low as twelve dollars a 
month, we cannot demand age nor preparation ; while in Califor- 
nia, with the wage almost never falling below fifty dollars a 
month, we can demand much more. In answering the questions 
I shall therefore have in mind the country and village teachers in 
a part of our country which pays from thirty dollars to sixty dol- 
lars a month for such work. 

7. Studies on children should include observation of physical 
development, simple measurements, sense tests, recognition of 
common pathological conditions ; studies in mental averages, 
peculiarities in mental operations, and tests for correction ; aes- 
thetic averages and peculiarities ; and moral activities, with 
observational studies on the action of the mind of a child in deal- 
ing with each of the common subjects of study in elementary 
schools. 

8. The measurements of children should be made along lines 
already worked over, say along the lines proposed by Dr. Boas in 
gathering data for Chicago. An inferior line of measurements 
had better be followed if it alone gives materials for comparison. 
Scales, measuring rods, and a pair of calipers will be sufficient. 

10. The history of education is very badly taught at present. 
It should be something more than a series of biographies, or else 
nothing. I believe the history of education can be made a very 
valuable study, and that, if well taught, it would take place next 
to psychology in the course. Psychology should ask, What is 
the mind we are training? History of education should ask. How 
has the mind become what it is? It should be studied from 
original records, as in literature or science, and it should ask in 
successive periods of human development : i. What kind of men 
and women were in demand at this time ? What were the ideals ? 

2. What influences, conscious or unconscious, were brought to 
bear upon the young through religion, arts, literature, schools, 
and homes, to make more of the men and women desired ? 

3. How far did the effort to perpetuate or to realize their ideal 
succeed ? 4. If it failed, why ? Coming to our own time we could 
ask. What kinds of men and women are in demand ? Judging 
from the experience of the past, how can we go to work to make 
more such men and women as we want ? The manuals of school 
theory and personal biography can well be crowded into a brief 
informational course. 

11. Children should be observed and studied while trying to 
learn the common subjects. Then by class discussion general 



138 APPENDIX. 

principles should be drawn out. The students should draught sam- 
ple lessons — these should be discussed and corrected. Then the 
students should read and hear lectures, then form more lessons 
and teach them. 

12. Not too many model-teachers — they are dangerous. 

13. They should not be observed as models before trying to 
teach. 

Mrs. Sara F. Bliss, Normal Trahiing ScJiool, 

Providence, R. I. 

2. A good high-school education, including a large part of tiie 
outline kiid down on the question paper. The knowledge obtained 
is not necessarily called into requisition in any or every department 
of teaching, but the discipline derived from a thorough and careful 
study of the different subjects gives a wide general scope and pro- 
vides power. "Knowledge" (all things being equal) "is power." 
The foreign languages, while they are a means of excellent disci- 
pline and culture, are not essential in preparation for primary or 
gramm.ar school work. 

6. Psychology should be studied as a science, and at the same 
time by the study of individuals. To be able to formulate and 
detect various conditions of mental power and action, requires 
enlightenment and wise direction, also capable supervision in the 
application of the science. The teacher needs to study children or 
a child at work, at play, in his relation to others, his playmates, his 
elders, in his unconscious moments, when left to himself, when he 
is interested in his own devices, when indolent and inactive, when 
he is being instructed, etc. Is it possible each day for the teacher 
to arouse the activities of interest, growth, and thought ? Such is 
the real study of psychology. 

10. The history of education should be studied not simply to 
become acquainted with the facts that there have been such enlight- 
ened educators, at certain periods, and what they thought, but 
their theories, principles, the actual schools of such individuals, their 
influence upon the masses or upon a select few. The most useful 
feature, however, is the influence upon the world ; how far reach- 
ing, to what extent, we are affected by them. Bacon's theories 
mark a period in the evolution of education in England. 

11. The four processes mentioned on the question proper are 
useful in their respective places. The actual observation and prac- 
tice with classes of children to whom the subjects are suited, give 
far more enlightenment. In the theory class, one well-developed 
lesson putting into practice the previous study is of greater value 
than the other four. The theory is by no means sufficient : unless 
the teacher in practice has a personality, a power to arouse, stimu- 
late to action, all the study and preparation in the world will prove 
a failure. 

12. It is not necessary to have a model-teacher for each class. 
One model-teacher may also be a critic-teacher. A critic should 
be able to give good model lessons. One critic, who is at the 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 1 39 

same time a model-teacher, may direct two rooms. It is not possi- 
ble, however, to secure in every direction as good results as one 
teacher well trained may get by consecutive lessons from day to 
day. The only way to train a teacher is to give her sufficient 
responsibility and practice and discipline to become mistress of the 
situation. She should be held responsible to a certain extent, 
though allowance should be made for inexperience. The critic 
should see to it that the children under the charge of the pupil- 
teacher do not eventually suffer. She should herself be able to 
make provisions for defects to some extent. 

A. C. BOYDEN, Bridgewater, Mass. 

11. Outlines of lessons by pupil-teachers lead to formalism, to a 
transfer of thought from the individual child to the subject-matter 
in its mere logical relations. 

Giving lessons to fellow pupil-teachers is valuable as a training 
in self-confidence, in directing thought, in meeting and answering 
questions, in acquiring skill, in putting questions, handling appara- 
tus, etc. 

12. Investigation and discussion of the subject from the teacher's 
standpoint with a live teacher is the best preparation. It furnishes 
inspiration, broader views, methods of arrangement and presenta- 
tion, and suggestions of device, which books and lectures fail to 
give. 

Richard G. Boone, Principal of the State Normal School, 

Ypsilanti, Mich. 

The teachers of secondary schools differ, obviously, from those 
doing elementary work, in that the scholastic requirements of the 
former are both absolutely and relatively greater. Absolutely 
greater, as the work done, the same in subject-matter,^ science, the 
humanities, languages, and mathematics, — is more comprehensive, 
and the corresponding processes comparative and critical rather 
than individual and descriptive. All of which implies in the 
teacher abundant insights and habits of discrimination, re-enforced 
by disciplined powers and large scholarship. 

But if, e. g., elementary teaching is intelligent only with a good 
elementary training plus a secondary education, instruction in the 
secondary school equally requires of the teacher, added to its own 
richest scholarship, the spirit and learning of the university and 
the habits and temper of the original investigator. 

There is needed also a training in some school upon true univer- 
sity foundations, in which the secondary teacher shall have proved 
his claims to independent research and his resourcefulness in han- 
dling the raw materials of his course. This does not mean that 
the individual teaching and investigative devices of the university 
are to be of necessity introduced into the secondary school ; or 
that the time here shall be given over to original inquiry and labo- 
ratory research. The high school is essentially a teaching body. 
The relative immaturity of the students, the accompanying neces- 



140 APPENDIX. 

sity of dealing with generalizations and rules and verifications, and 
the fact that the choice of a life-work, at least among learned 
occupations, is yet some years away, make instruction, not training 
or individual research, to be the chief function of the secondary 
school. 

As the student grows older and more self-helpful and capable of 
directing his own studies within wide limits, as in the later college 
and university years, one may allow for less of professional insight 
and skill, and more for scholarship. 

The university training, or a course grounded upon a liberal 
culture and after the individual methods of the laboratory and the 
seminary, may be made to contribute more than any inferior school 
to the resourcefulness of teaching and to an independence of mere 
recipes and formula. This elevation of the plane of criticism and 
guidance through the possession of generous standards and right 
habits of thinking are increasingly needed as the child grows older, 
until he reaches years of something like self-helpfulness. 

It is most needed by the secondary teacher, inasmuch as the 
course pursued in secondary schools covers the most critical because 
transition period in the individual's life. These years are the most 
important in an educational way, not because the most fruitful, for 
the first six or eight years of a child's life would certainly take pre- 
cedence ; not because of the introduction of any new means, or any 
new standards of life ; but rather because of the confusion and 
complexity of the life in these years, and yet more because they are 
so little understood. New interests are springing up ; new motives 
prevail ; new dangers are imminent ; new and greater prospects 
stretch out and multiply. To direct the energies into and through 
this adolescent period demands the largest heart not less than a 
well-filled head ; an understanding of the conditioning factors in 
this new life, and how to use them ; a trained sympathy with its 
wants and waywardness. To say that these may not be given to 
one is to repeat the objection used against normal schools so indis- 
criminately fifty and forty years ago. 

To concede that the real purpose of the secondary school is 
education and not training or cram, is to concede at once that the 
teachers of secondary schools have need of a complete and suitable 
preparation, just as do lower class teachers. That they need it 
more than do many other teachers, follows from the complexity and 
stubbornness of the conditions. 

The high school, though of the highest secondary rank, belongs 
in its interests and methods to the common-school system, and fits its 
own teaching to the accomplished results of the elementary school. 
To do the work of the one well, requires a knowledge of the other. 
Looked at from this side, the preparation of the secondary teacher 
should include professional and practical acquaintance with the cur- 
riculum, and children, and the institutional and social conditions, 
and inner working of elementary schools. 

This point needs emphasis because the preparation of teachers 
for secondary education, when it has been undertaken at all, has 
usually been from the point of view of the college and of scholar- 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. I4I 

ship as satisfying every requirement. High-school teachers should 
have had at least a cadet training for a minimum time in element- 
ary schools, if indeed they do not take their promotion to the 
higher classes from the lower. 

Summarizing briefly the points enumerated, they are as follows : 

1. The scholarship of secondary teachers should be relatively 
more abundant than that for elementary teachers, and is equally 
urgent. 

2. The fact that the secondary school is a teaching body, and not 
an organization for research, emphasizes the need of professional 
training in its teachers. 

3. The preparation of such teachers should include, also, an inti- 
mate and patient study of the adolescent, as the most significant 
fact in the secondary period. 

4. Because the secondary school is often wholly, and always more 
or less, a finishing school, the training of its teachers should include 
both a theoretical and practical acquaintance with the organization 
and work of the under classes. 

5. Inasmuch as it is sometimes a fitting school, and is growing in 
this service, the training of its teachers should include an equally 
efficient acquaintance with the constitution and culture of the 
superior schools depending upon it. 

This irriplies : 

(i) The scholarship and training that come to one from its class- 
rooms and laboratories ; and 

(2) A well-directed professional study of the leading educational 
and administrative problems that are common to the two schools, 
and those especially that are incident to the period of youth. 

F. B. Gault, President of the University of Idaho, 

Moscow, Idaho. 

I find a marked weakness in the professional training of teachers. 
I would rather place a young girl, granted she has requisite culture 
and an ambition to succeed, in a school with an able teacher, and 
let her assist in the drudgery, acting as a cadet or helper, than to 
run the risk of having her pass through a training school with critic- 
teacher attachments. 

5. If the course is one year, devote all the time to study of prin- 
ciples and methods. True professional preparation consists of 
training tmder teaching, not by teaching. My best teachers have 
always come from the best schools. I think that practice-teaching 
in the model or training school is of little benefit to any one. If 
the school does good teaching, if it arouses the teaching ideal and 
teaching spirit, if it exemplifies the best in both form and spirit of 
teaching, the student will come out a teacher, even though there is 
not a day of practice work. Critic-teachers, expert trainers, et al., 
maim and pervert as many teachers as they aid. The spirit of the 
training or professional school is worth more than training in con- 
ventional forms. 

9. I have little faith in professional training that does not apply 



142 APPENDIX. 

the psychology upon the scholastic branches. The best psychology 
must accompany the best daily scholastic work. It must not be a 
top-dressing, but an outgrowth of the daily experience of the teacher 
while under training. Psychology is not a separate and detached 
study. It is under, above, and about every branch. 

1 1 . I think the best professional training will come only with scho- 
lastic training as the basis, under masterful teachers, who inspire 
students with a desire to teach and to teach well, and who are able 
to reveal the bearings of things. With some well-fixed scientific 
principles, with professional enthusiasm, with something of an 
inventive spirit aroused, the young teacher may safely go out to 
conduct a model school for himself, with his own ideals as critic- 
teacher, and succeed. The tendency of normal training is to bring 
the teacher to a full stop intellectually and professionally. 

J. M. Greenwood, Superintendent of ScJwols, 

Kansas City, Mo. 

5. About two-thirds of the time should be devoted to the dis- 
cussion of principles and methods of teaching, and not more than 
one-third to practice-teaching. Practice-teaching, " in leading- 
strings," has little independent educational value. 

6. Probably the best way for a beginner to take up psychology 
is to require him or her to analyze a mental process, such as reciting 
a lesson, or solvmg a problem, or writing a letter, and to place each 
act of the mind during the process where it belongs. In this way 
the learner gets the technique of psychology ; but the real study 
must oroceed from the standpoint of the " will and motives." All 
scientific teaching depends upon psychology ; it is the psychology 
which fits into every-day work. Much of it, as some get hold of it, 
is of such an intangible nature that it has no bearing on ordinary 
affairs. A good working psychology, derived from introspection and 
observation, is what the average teacher needs. 

7. As a general thing, I would not advise teachers to make a 
critical physical examination of children. To find out whether 
they hear well and have good eyes, will be sufficient in most cases. 
Mental and moral traits should be carefully noted according to a 
scheme prepared by the superintendent. A blank, not too elaborate, 
will cover all necessarv traits — bodily, mental, and moral. 

II. (0 Ey analyzing each lesson; (2) by selecting the salient 
points for the recitation ; (3) by presenting them in an orderly 
manner, provided the learners' minds have been properly prepared ; 
(4) by connecting the lesson with all that had preceded it ; (5) by 
having it reproduced and then clinched ; (6) by having it prac- 
tically applied ; (7) by special and general discussion. The teacher 
needs to be trained so as to discriminate sharply between the 
essentials and the non-essentials in every recitation. 

14. Too much criticism hampers. The first thing to show the 
beginner is what I call " schoolroom tactics," which includes all 
class movements regulated by signals, promptly and cheerfully 
obeyed. The critic-teacher should go through these movements 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 1 43 

first and in the presence of the beginner. As soon as the beginner 
has the room well in hand, instruction in the branches should 
begin. Here, again, the critic must know whether it is better to let 
the beginner flounder for awhile, or to take hold and "straighten 
things out." It depends ! *' Heady novices " oftentimes arc helped 
by running against the wall. A sympathetic critic- I do not like 
the word "critic " in this connection — can watch several rooms ; but 
a majority of the critic-teachers I have seen at work were pedantic 
hinderances instead of helpers. The best helpers are those who sit 
quietly in the room, and then, when the session has closed, talk 
with the beginner over the work, asking her why she did this or 
that — approving the good, and suggesting remedies for what was 
poorly done. 

B. C. Gregory, Supervising Principal, Trenton, N. J. 

I. If pupils arc to be permitted to enter who have not completed 
a high-school course, I would postpone the time of entering ; that is 
to say, the maturity will come earlier if the development is aided by 
the high school than if it is not thus aided. Thus the high school 
requirement naturally leads to eighteen as an average age of en- 
trance ; but if the pupil has not had the advantage of a high-school 
course, I should hesitate to concede him an equal maturity for two 
or three years after that age. But, as the undergraduates of high 
schools and grammar schools who enter the normal schools are of 
less age than the high-school graduate, the practice of normal 
schools in admitting these persons is to reverse the action of the 
law suggested by my opinion as above. If my position is correct, 
the immaturity of many normal-school pupils is worthy of serious 
consideration. For, if a girl leaves the high school before com- 
pleting the course, this act ought not to hasten her entrance into 
the normal school, but ought the rather to postpone it beyond the 
time when she would have graduated from the high school. 

5. The question seems to im])ly that a certain section of the year 
should be given to the one kind of training, and a certain section to 
the other. In my judgment, the best method is found in carrying 
on the two kinds of training simultaneously. If possible, I would 
have a part of each week given to teaching, and a part to principles, 
etc. This plan enables the pupil-teacher to revise her theories in 
the light of experience ; it gives her something of the experience of 
a regular teacher. Much of the instruction in principles and methods 
can be appropriated only if put to the test of trial. It is the old 
law of " education by doing," which applies to the normal pupil 
equally with the primary pupil. But if the instruction in theory is 
given in a lump, and the practice taken in the same way, much of 
the theory will not be digested, and will find little expression in the 
teaching. In the work of the regular teacher, progress comes from 
testing a theory, which, being found imperfect, is reconsidered and 
retested. The normal-school course should follow this hint. I 
would, therefore, carry the practice of teaching throughout the whole 
course, giving it very nearly one-half the time. 



144 APPENDIX. 

6. In my judgment, much of the time spent in teaching psychology 
in normal schools is lost. 1 do not think that too much time is spent 
on the subject, but that the teaching is not conducted in such a way 
as to result in much good ; indeed, I would spend more tmie on the 
subject than is usually given to it. I would have the usual course 
in theoretical psychology, but I would have it much simpler than is 
usually the case. Then 1 would have an additional course in 
applied psychology, bringing the subject into actual touch with the 
details of schoolroom work; this is generally left out ; it is the pa- 
thology of the subject. To be effective, this course must be constantly 
subjected to verification through the experiences of the classroom. 
My distribution of the time allotted respectively to the principles 
and to the practice of teaching (see 5) is necessary to carry out this 
idea. 

10. My opinion is that this branch of pedagogy requires consid- 
erable maturity. It comes properly at the end of a normal course, 
when the pupil has been trained to consider principles of education 
rather than devices, and when the habit of psychological thinking 
has been developed ; then the student is prepared to consider the 
historical evolution of the principles of which she has already some 
practical knowledge. 

14. The most valuable kind of criticism is given, however, in the 
critic class. This class should be held once a week, and should be 
presided over by the critic-teacher or principal of the training school. 
The criticisms on each pupil-teacher should be read in class. At 
first there is sensitiveness on the part of the pupil-teacher, but my 
experience is that, where the matter is managed wisely and kindly, 
this feeling disappears. The error of one pupil-teacher reported 
by a training teacher is often a typical error, which easily might 
have been the error of any other member of the training class. The 
general discussion of the points of criticism in open class proves 
exceedingly helpful and stimulating to all present. 

Paul H. Hanus, Assistant Professor of the History and Art 
of Teaching, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 

2. The first element of professional training for secondary-school 
teachers is scholarship. Without a full and ready knowledge of 
the subject he has to teach — a knowledge which extends in scope 
and thoroughness far beyond what is required of his pupils — no 
teacher, whatever his natural or acquired teaching power may be, 
can become, as he should, the trustworthy, inspiring, and vigorous 
leader of his pupils. In most instances, failure to attain a respect- 
able standard of achievement even as a mere classroom teacher is 
due more to the want of scholarship than to deficiency in teaching 
power. Scholarship is therefore fundamental. Besides being com- 
prehensive in scope and thorough in quality, it should cover special 
proficiency in that one subject or group of closely related subjects 
which the future teacher expects to teach. Such scholarship is 
possessed by college graduates who have made good use of their 
opportunities. Hence only such college graduates, or persons who 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. I45 

give evidence of attainments in scholarship equal to those of such 
graduates, should be considered eligible to positions as teachers in 
secondary schools. 

But scholarship, though fundamental, is not enough. The future 
teacher must learn how to use his knowledge wisely and effectively 
as a teacher. The secondary-school teacher is primarily not a teacher 
of subjects at all, "but a teacher of minds by means of subjects." 
To teach the subject, to be a specialist pure and simple, that is the 
function of the college or university professor. 

The secondary-school teacher must learn how to use his subject 
as a means of discovering his pupil as well as of instructing him. 
Before he can develop his pupil's interest and power, he must know 
what they are. Having discovered his pupil, he must then learn 
how, with the help of instruction, he can best promote the pupil's 
development. 

The well-trained secondary-school teacher must therefore be 
more than a classroom teacher, important as his work in the class- 
room is. He must extend his horizon beyond his own subject and 
his own immediate duties. He must see his subject in its relation 
to other subjects. He must study it so as to form a just estimate 
of its educational value. He must see the relation of his own daily 
work to that of his fellow-workers. He must therefore obtain a 
clear conception of the aims and means as well as of the methods of 
education, \\\ order that he may develop the conscious purposes that 
should determine the whole nature and quality of his work. He 
must also learn how to provide for his pupils the most salutary 
physical environment, and how he can best promote their normal 
physical development. To inculcate such a conception of the 
teacher's work is the function of educational theory. The second 
phase of professional training for secondary-school teachers is,, 
therefore, educational theory, which comprises : 

^i) The study of the scope and meaning of education. 

(2) The study oi psychology applied to teaching. 

Such a study presupposes some acquaintance with psychology as 
a science, and means such a further study of the mind and of its 
development S.S will enable one to enter into the mind's processes in 
acquisition and to realize a youth's mental life. To this end the 
teacher must learn that he now studies pyschology, not for its own 
sake, but for the sake of his pupils ; that he is not to attempt new 
discoveries in psychology, but to acquire for himself a new mental 
attitude ; that he is to learn how to trace the links in a cham of 
complex mental phenomena, how to facilitate the accomplishment 
cf a difficult task, how to promote a gain in will power, the birth of 
a new impulse, or the development of a new affection. Such a 
study of psychology should aim to develop in the future teacher 
the spirit and attitude of the observing naturalist. It should be 
begun through lectures, suppleme?ited by a careful study of the work 
of the most inspiring and successful teachers in their classrooms ; but 
such a study of psychology should become the lifelong habit of 
the teacher, and its best and most fruitful results are not attainable 
until he teaches his own classes in his own school. 



14(3 APPENDIX. 

(3) The study of (a) educational values and {U) of the correlation 
of studies. 

(a) This means an attempt to make clear the characteristic effi- 
cacy of the several subjects in promoting the realization of the aim 
of education, and to determine their relative values in this regard. 
Such study gives the teacher perspective. While it dignifies his 
own subject, it enables him to see what it cannot do as well as what 
it can do. He learns its specific and its general educatio7ial values ; 
i.e., he learns to what extent its data are involved in other subjects, 
and how far its method is applicable to other subjects, and to what 
extent its data and method are restricted to its own range. 

(b) This means the endeavor to find and provide for the many 
natural associations between the different subjects of instruction, 
so that the pupil's acquisitions may thereby gain in significance and 
permanence ; and also that the development by the pupils of the 
important habit of seeking and holding fast the relations between 
all their acquisitions, may be promoted. 

(4) Some study of the general principles of method. Broad 
generalizations only are desirable. Method is best studied in de- 
tail in the form of methods of teaching individual subjects in which 
general principles are applied and illustrated. 

(5) The study of the general principles of discipline, including 
moral training. 

(6) The general principles of school hygiene, including {a) the 
hygiene of buildings, (b) the hygiene of pupils. 

[a) Including systems of heating, lighting, ventilation, and school 
furniture. 

(/;) Including the general laws of health and physical culture. 

3. The third feature of professional training is the history of edu- 
cational theories a7td practice. In education, as in all other human 
activities, we cannot dispense with the lessons of past experience. 
" If we ignore the past, we cannot understand the present or fore- 
cast the future." Hence the future teacher should study the his- 
tory of education in order that he may become acquainted with the 
most important educational classics, and thus obtain foundation for 
the criticism of present theories and practices in the light of their 
historical evolution, and incidentally acquire many rules for guid- 
ance in the actual work of teaching. Such study naturally includes 
a brief consideration of education in Greece, Rome, and the middle 
ages. Much more attention should be given to the history of edu- 
cation and teachmg since the Renaissance in Europe (England, 
France, and Germany), in order to trace the gradual development 
of modern ideals and practice, and to the history of education and 
teaching in the United States. Such work, in addition to the in- 
struction, should require much reading on the part of the student, 
and frequent historical and critical summaries and essays. 

4. But the professional student cannot be content with scholar- 
ship, educational theory, and the history of educational theories 
and practice. He must study the organizatiofi and work of present 
school systems in actual operation; he must know the constitution, 
powers, .and duties of school committees ; he must be familiar with 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. I47 

the means available to the teacher for the realization of his ends ; 
he must know some of the practical daily problems of organization, 
management, and teaching, and must learn how those problems are 
to be met. 

The fourth feature of professional training for secondary-school 
teachers, and for those who look forward to the higher positions 
in the educational field generally, is, accordmgly, the study of the 
organization and management of school and school system, including 
courses of study, supervision, and teaching. 

Such study should enable students to become familiar with and 
to understand the organization and administration of schools and 
school systems through direct observation and comparative study. 
In studying the school systems of American cities, a detailed exam- 
ination of their courses of study should be undertaken, and the 
principles on which any course of study should be based should be 
discussed. The duties of superintendents, principals, and teachers 
should be considered. Attention should be given to details of 
school management, such as the management of classes, examina- 
tions and promotions, discipline ; and some attention should be 
given to methods of teaching the elementary subjects. Students 
should observe, under direction, the administration and work of 
public schools and school systems, and of academies in the vicinity. 
Such study of the actaal work of teaching and administration 
should be pursued regularly and persistently ; at first for general 
impressions, then for details. Frequent reports of the visits for 
such study should be made, orally and in writing, and these reports 
should give rise to much classroom discussion. In this way each 
student should make a general comparative study of many schools, 
and a more detailed study of the teaching in all the grades, includ- 
ing the high school, of at least two school systems in his vicinity, 
if the locality affords opportunity for such study ; otherwise this 
detailed study should cower the teaching in all the grades of at least 
two schools below the high school, and, of course, the high-school 
grades as well. Students should also be required to acquaint them- 
selves with any supplementary activities of the schools they study, 
such as the work of literary or scientific societies or clubs. Mean- 
while they should follow a prescribed course of reading on admin- 
istration and teaching, and the instruction they receive should aim 
to make all their work significant and serviceable. Toward the 
close of the period devoted to this study of administration and 
teaching an opportunity should be given to students to specialize in 
the direction of the particular subject or subjects they expect to 
teach. In that subject (or those subjects) the student should 
study carefully all the teaching resources — text-books, reference 
books, and apparatus — and present critical estimates of the relative 
values of the books and apparatus he finds in use, or which he him- 
self recommends ; and he should study with special care the teach- 
ing of that subject (or subjects) from the beginning, wherever they 
may be, through the high school. 

Finally, each student should be required to submit a thesis on the 
organization and administration of a city school system, in which 



148 APPENDIX. 

special attention should be given to the course of study, together 
with direction for its rational and effective administration. In this 
thesis particular attention should, of course, be given to the student's 
specialty, for which all the details of the course of study, teaching 
resources, and methods of teaching should be fully treated. 

Also, near the close of the period devoted to the work just 
described (or after that work is completed), systematic instruction 
in methods of teaching the several subjects m a secondary school 
course of study should be given by college instructors and by the 
best instructors that can be procured from the secondary school. 

Through their study of the teaching in the schools, the students 
have learned how portions of the different subjects are taught by 
individual teachers. Such study was necessary in order to render 
a systematic presentation of the methods of teaching the several 
subjects significant. They still need a systematic presentation of 
the method of teaching each subject for the sake of definiteness 
and completeness. Such instruction should be obligatory for each 
student so far as his own specialty is concerned. It should, of 
course, cover the planning and methods of conducting class work 
under the conditions obtaining in public schools and academies. 

When this work has been completed, two or three State school 
systems and two or three European systems — say the school sys- 
tems of England, France, and Germany — should be studied. Every 
college or university offering opportunities for professional study 
ought also to provide special opportunities for teachers already in 
service who seek assistance and guidance in the study of their pro- 
fession, or who wish to make a special study of particular problems. 
Such opportunities many teachers will find in the work already 
described ; but for the most advanced students a pedagogical semi- 
nary should be provided. In this seminary, topics for prolonged 
study should be suggested by the instructor or proposed by the 
students. Each man having selected his topic, the work should 
proceed by the usual methods of university study ; namely, inves- 
tigation and discussion. 

A model school, which in the construction and complete equip- 
ment of its building should exemplify the best modern ideals, which 
should comprise all the grades from the kindergarten through the 
secondary school, and which in its organization and work " should 
represent the finest results of the teaching art," would be an inval- 
uable aid to the student of education and teaching. Such a school 
should exhibit in itself all the best features of all the schools which 
the students have studied. It could never render unnecessary the 
comparative study of schools and school systems described above : 
for the^students need breadth of view ; they need to know what is 
as welfas zuhat should be, and what the conditions are under which 
they will have to attempt the realization of their ideals. This 
breadth of view and this knowledge can be obtained only by study- 
ing the schools as they are. Such a model school should be placed 
in charge of the professor of education and teaching, and it slwuld 
be independent of all control except that of the college or university 
authorities. 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. I49 

Such a school would be a model school in the proper sense of the 
term ; it would not be used by the students for " practice-teaching." 
No school can be, at the same time, both a model school and a prac- 
tice or experimental school. There can be no satisfactory practice- 
teaching — /. e., no teaching that is really worthy of being considered 
" apprenticeship teaching" — unless the students carry, for a sufficient 
time, the full responsibilities of the regular teachers. But in that 
case the school would manifestly not be a model school. A school 
in which much of the teaching was done by inexperienced teachers 
could not exemplify the highest teaching art. 

Concerning the utility of practice teaching, in general, except 
that of an enlightened beginner carrying the full responsibility of 
a teacher in charge of his first school or class, I have grave doubts. 
I am inclined to believe that the best preparation for shortening 
and rationalizing the inevitable period of experimentation which 
every inexperienced teacher undergoes is the scholarship, profes- 
sional insight, and enthusiasm, provided for in the training described 
above, without the attempt to force experience in teaching — an 
attempt that is almost sure to check enthusiasm and spontaneity, 
and may substitute mechanism for life in the teacher's work. 

Provision for such professional training as has been described 
should be made by every college and university the location of 
which renders the actual study of many schools possible. When 
the location is unfavorable to such study, so much of this training 
should be provided as can be profitably undertaken. College men 
who look forward to teaching in secondary schools will never seek 
professional training at the existing normal schools, and it is not 
desirable that they should. The difference between the scholarship 
and developed intellectual power of a normal-school student and 
of a college man is too great to make it possible or desirable to 
give the college student his professional training at the normal 
school ; and the college education is a fundamental requisite for 
the secondary-school teacher. The professional training of the 
college man must, therefore, be provided by the colleges and univer- 
sities, if at all. The necessity for such training is no longer in 
dispute. It only remams for principals of secondary schools and 
superintendents now in service to demand professional training 
for all teachers, and to induce their school committees to re-enforce 
this demand by making it difficult for any inexperienced teacher, 
who has not had professional training, to find employment, in 
order to cause the colleges and universities of the country to make 
suitable provision for such training. The duty of principals and 
superintendents to the profession is plain. Will they do it ? 

B. A. Hinsdale, Professor of Pedagogy, 

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 

I. If normal schools or training schools were organized on the 
proper br.sis, as sometimes they are, I should say the minimum age 
ought not to be less than eighteen or nineteen. That is the age at 
which the average high-school pupil finishes his high-school course. 



150 APPENDIX. 

2. With the qualification inserted in the first answer, I should say 
that requirement for scholarship in all the branches named should 
be equal to the standard attained by a good high-school course. 

3. High-school diplomas may be properly accepted, provided the 
normal-school authorities have examined the work done in the high 
school, including its course of study, and have found everything 
satisfactory. Four years should be insisted upon in all cases where 
the elementary grades are only eight in number. Pupils coming 
from inferior high schools, or from high schools with which the 
normal school is not in touch, should be examined. 

4. If a preparation equal to that described above can be secured, 
then a tvvo or three years' course would be sufficient, say two years 
upon the average ; but if the normal school is based on the elemen- 
tary school, as is so often the case to a great extent, then the normal- 
school course should be six years, as it is in Germany. 

5. From one-half to two-thirds of the time should be devoted to 
study and discussion of the principles of education, etc. ; the re- 
mainder to practice and to criticism of practice. 

6. A text-book in psychology as extensive as Baldwin's elemen- 
tary book (J. M. Baldwin) should be thoroughly digested. Pupils 
should prepare and recite lessons, and the whole subject should be 
illustrated by the teacher or professor. 

7. Along all the great lines of child development, physical, men- 
tal, moral. By mental I mean not merely intellectual, but the whole 
range and compass of mental activity. 

8. I have no expert opinion on this subject. 

9. Principles of education must be deduced from the study of 
the mind, and from the study of the world, or knowledge, brought 
inio relation. I mean knowledge in the objective sense. It is not 
sufficient to study psychology abstractly. The relation of various 
kinds of subject-matter to the mind must also be included. The 
method may be inductive or deductive, or a combination of both. 
The latter is no doubt preferable. Sometimes principles may be 
deduced from facts, but it is equally permissible to state the prin- 
ciples and then confirm and illustrate them by facts. 

10. The main lines of educational thought and practice should 
be followed, particularly since the Renaissance. If the subject is 
followed intelligently, it will have large culture value. It may be 
made practical by criticism of false or imperfect views, and of 
vicious or faulty methods of teaching and government and of 
school administration. 

11. All of the four methods suggested should be comjhined in 
judicious measure. Stress should be laid upon the practical side. 

12. I think the plan of having a model-teacher placed over every 
two classes a very good one. I do not think the plan of a model- 
teacher for each class desirable ; it tends to beget dependence and 
weakness. On the other hand, if there is only one critic-teacher 
for several pupil-teachers, the oversight is likely to be insufficient. 

13. I am hardly prepared to suggest a plan. It scarcely seems 
to me a " plan " can cut much of a figure. What is wanted is intel- 
ligent observation, and that can hardly be reduced to an art. 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. I51 

14. Some suggestions can be made to the pupil-teacher while 
the work is going on, if they are made in the right way ; but most 
of the criticism must be made after the school is dismissed. It may 
be either individual or collective, as the circumstances determine. 
If the same faults have been observed in two or more pupil-teachers, 
those faults may be discussed in their common presence ; but much 
individual work of this sort will be found necessary. 

15. I should not favor the employment of both critic-teachers 
and model teachers. The model-teachers should be critic-teachers. 
The teacher of methodology should also exercise particular over- 
sight, and criticism should be limited to the teacher of methodology 
and the model-teacher. The pupil-teacher's responsibility should 
not go beyond two persons. If critic-teachers are employed, and 
not model-teachers, the answer to the question is, of course, obvious. 

16. If normal schools could be organized on what I conceive to 
be an ideal basis, academical work, properly so called, would be 
excluded. The only subjects in which formal instruction would 
be given would be the principles, methods, and history of educa- 
tion, and in the sciences out of which principles and methods of 
education grow. Still I am inclined to think that it might be well 
to provide in a normal school for a certain amount of review work 
in academical studies, for the purpose of keeping the mind of the 
pupil fresh and bright in these subjects. It is important to keep 
the minds of such pupils facing outward toward the great kingdom 
of knowledge. I have spoken of what I conceive to be the ideal. 
Few, or none, of our normal schools are ideal, however, in my 
judgment. No doubt it would be found impossible at present to 
carry out my ideas. These ideas are not carried out in the normal 
schools of Germany. Most of the work done in the six-years' 
courses in the normal schools of Saxony, for example, is done in 
studies, and not on proper professional lines. For the time being, 
we are no doubt compelled to accept a large amount of academical 
work in the normal schools ; but I think it is desirable steadily to 
raise the standard of requirement, and steadily to increase the 
amount of professional work. 

17. I know of no particular tests of efficiency that can be applied 
to such case. The tests are obviously the same as in a school 
taught by a regular teacher, but somewhat differently applied. The 
factor of oversight will, of course, be far more prominent. The 
critic-teacher, or model-teacher, and the teacher of methodology, 
will naturally look after such teachers much more closely than the 
superintendent or supervisor will look after the ordinary teacher ; 
still, the final test of efficiency must be the answer to the question, 
whether the child learns. 

18. The diploma of a normal or training school should stand for 
a certain amount of scholarship, directly or indirectly ; for a cer- 
tain amount of professional study; and for a certain amount of 
training. As to general scholarship, the diploma would testify 
directly when a large amount of academical work is done in the 
school ; indirectly when the normal school looks to the high school 
or academy for general preparation. 



152 APPENDIX. 

I dismiss the subject with observing that my answers have respect 
to a general ideal much more directly than to the state of things 
now existing. If I were the principal of a normal school, the 
practical problem for me to solve would be to apply the general 
ideas that I have expressed to a particular situation. 

J. L. HOLLOWAY, Superintendent of Schools, Fort Smith, Ark. 

4. If the word be confined chiefly to professional training, the 
minimum length of the course should be two years. When it is 
necessary to supplement to a larger extent the professional with 
scholastic instruction, the usual four-years' course seems to be the 
most practical. 

5. As a rule, the lines should be about equally divided. The nat- 
ural endowment and tact of the individual is a determining factor. 
;Many have the faculty of imparting knowledge and are born to lead ; 
others are good theorizers, but poor tacticians and executors. The 
normal-school teachers have the same problems to handle that 
confront the public-school teachers daily; viz., individual aptitudes, 
varying temperaments, and other elements of the personal equation. 

7. The activity or torpor of certain mental or moral faculties 
under the excitant of specific instruction or example, the responsive- 
ness of children to certain methods of procedure in their daily 
training, and the bearing of temperament as related to teaching and 
discipline, constitute a field of original research at once interesting 
and valuable. Indeed, I believe until such data are procured and 
thoroughly assimilated in the professional life of teachers, teaching 
will remain as it largely is to-day and ever has been — a species of 
empiricism. 

14. This will depend largely upon the disposition of the pupil- 
teacher. A good plan is to require observing pupils to draught 
criticisms, which are first inspected by the model-teacher, and to 
submit only such as will be most helpful to pupil-teachers and the 
class. In other cases it is well to have a running discussion take 
place immediately following the dismissal of the class in the model 
school. 

Ellen Hyde, Framingham, Mass. 

3. I should prefer to accept the diploma and throw all responsi- 
bility for scholarship on the preparatory schools. 

6. Enough to teach the teacher to examine his own mental states 
and processes, and to observe with interest and some degree of 
insight the mental exercises and growth of children. Empirically 
by introspection and observation and as a science of mind, not as 
mere neurology. 

12. A school for practice cannot be a "model" school. In a 
practice school long experience leads me to the belief that in order 
to do justice to both pupils and pupil-teachers, and to keep the 
school efficient, there must be a responsible permanent teacher in 
every room, whose principal work and care shall be to keep the 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 1 53 

school up to grade, and the pupils in right mental and moral condi- 
tion. In addition there must be a sufificient number of critic-teach- 
ers to give careful observation and criticism to the work of the 
pupil-teachers. 

George H. Martin, Lynn, Mass. 

7. During the period of training, the students should use chiefly 
the results of other people's observations of children. But they 
should be taught the most profitable lines of child-study and the 
best methods of pursuing them. 

12. In my judgment, a ;/z^^^/ school and a practice school should 
be two distinct institutions, with different functions and a different 
organization. In the model school each class should have its own 
teacher, whose work should never be interrupted by apprentices. 
In the practice school the pupil-teachers should have full charge of 
classes for a limited time, under the supervision of experts. 

F. F. MURDOCK, Bridgewater Normal School. 

6. Psychology should appear twice as a distinct subject in the 
normal programme. 

(i) At the beginning, the mental activities should be observed 
sufficiently to enable students thereafter to recognize the activities 
employed in gaining knowledge while acquiring the knowledge. 

(2) At the end of the course, to derive (?) the data for the science 
of psychology, or so much of it as is necessary for intelligent and 
appreciative application of fundamental psychological and peda- 
gogical truths. 

The knowledge should be acquired under skilled direction : [a) 
by observation of self-activity, of activities of other adults, of child- 
activity ; {b) by directed readmg and discussion. 

10. History of education — to be worked out on the " laboratory " 
plan, the range of books and passages being to a considerable (two- 
thirds) degree indicated by the instructor. Afterward a brief com- 
pendium should be used as a means of review if desired. 

So much should be learned as would enable students to know and 
appreciate the valuable addition which each educator studied gave 
to education, thereby increasing zeal and willingness to learn and 
profit by the experience of the past ; i.e., to use all the good thus 
far acquired in educational "wisdom." 

Francis W. Parker, Principal of the Cook County Normal 
School, Englewood, 111. 

1. Eighteen years of age, with exceptions. 

2. It is impossible to state requirements for scholarship to enter 
such a course, in terms of quantity in the studies named from {a) to 
(/), inclusive. A good knowledge of all these subjects, with the 
exception of foreign languages (/), is necessary, and should include 
a very important mode of expression — writing, both upon paper 



1 54 APPENDIX. 

and the blackboard. The requirements, however, should consist 
of love, system, ability, and persistence in educative work. I look 
upon the developed ability to observe, to experiment, to investi- 
gate, and to reason, as the essential thing, and not the number of 
studies or amount of ground gone over. If, however, the pupil has 
learned to use mental power economically in each and all the sub- 
jects named, the basis for personal work would be very much 
stronger. There can be no marking, measuring, or weighing of 
quantity learned. My experience is that most pupils who enter 
from colleges and high schools into the professional training class 
fail in the essential knowledge of the subjects they have already 
studied, and in habits and methods of study. 

3. Requirements for admission to normal schools depend upon 
circumstances. Pupils presenting a diploma certifying to a four- 
years' course in a good high school should be admitted without 
examination. High schools should be examined upon their peda- 
gogical work, and put upon the list of accredited schools if the 
teaching and training is satisfactory. 

4. Should be at least two years. 

5. Impossible to answer the question. All the study in the pro- 
fessional training school should consist in the study of principles 
and methods of education, and adaptation of subject-matter ; should 
be, in fact, a direct preparation for the immediate practice of teach- 
ing. Pupils, when they enter a professional training school, should 
have their attention turned at once toward the work they are to do, 
and every step of the work in psychology, principles, methods, and 
the acquisition of knowledge, should be aimed at the practice. 
Pupils should be in, or should join in, classes of practice at least 
one hour each day during the whole course. 

6. That psychology which is necessary to the understanding of 
the principles of education should be studied inductively. 

7. Observation of children, psychologically and anthropologi- 
cally, should be made a principal factor in the study of psychology. 
If by observation is meant the observing of lessons given by prac- 
tice-teachers, I should say it is of little or no value. 

8. I have not sufficient expert knowledge to answer the ques- 
tion. 

9. All the principles of education should be derived directly from 
the laws of the mind. To answer the question *' In what way ? " is 
to present the whole subject of the science of education. 

10. The main lines of the history of education should be studied ; 
the lives of great teachers and reformers in education should be 
known, for instance, Socrates, Comenius, Ratisch, Franke, Girard, 
Pestalozzi, Diesterweg, Herbart, Froebel. The history of educa- 
tion should be turned upon the study of the principles and methods 
of education. 

11. Refer you to plan given in report (sent herewith) of the 
Cook County Normal School. 

12. There should be a regular teacher placed over each class or 
room. It is a great mistake to have a model-teacher, so called, 
placed over two rooms. All the practice-teachmg should be under 



ON TRAINING OF TEACHERS. I 55 

the immediate direction of a critic-teacher or regular teacher of a 
room, and this teaching should be supervised by the special teachers 
in the different departments of the normal school. 

13. The whole corps of teachers of a normal school should 
devote themselves to the careful observation of the work of pupil- 
teachers ; I should prefer that term to ?;/(?(/^/-teachers. 

14. All criticism should be private and personal. The critic- 
teachers and special teachers should observe with the greatest care 
the work of the pupil-teachers, and ascertain their main faults, and 
the criticism should be made in order to direct the attention of the 
pupil-teachers to their own mistakes, and how they can be obviated. 

15. Criticism should be made by all the teachers in the normal 
school. 

t6. In a strictly professional training school, a school parallel 
with a school of medicine or psychology, there should be no strictly 
academic work. 

17. A pupil-teacher's efficiency should be tested by the ability to 
govern, teach, and train classes of pupils. 

18. Diplomas should be granted upon the ability of a pupil to 
teach school. 

Sarah E. Scott and Emma L. Johnston, 

Training School for Teachers, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

2. The scholarship resulting from a twelve-years' course in Eng- 
lish, mathematics, natural science, physical culture, music, drawing ; 
an eight-years' course in history ; a two-years' course in Latin, 
and a one-year's course (at least) in a modern foreign language. 

7. At first the child-mind should be studied from books and by 
means of lectures. When pupil-teachers have learned the formulse 
for observation work, they may be given opportunity to record 
and report observations of particular children. 

8. The sense-organs, especially those of sight and hearing, should 
be tested. This is done in order to seat children properly, to 
regulate the light, the blackboard work, and the amount of indi- 
vidual attention bestowed. The ordinary letter-cards and the voice 
may be used for these tests. The elaborate apparatus used in 
some universities is out of place in the ordinary city training 
school. 

9. During the first half-year of the course, the students should 
be led to deduce the principles of pedagogy from the truths of 
psychology. During the next year the students should be taught 
to apply these princii;)les to methods of teaching. During the 
fourth half-year, pupil-teachers should use these principles as the 
basis for a criticism of the lessons observed or given by them in 
the practice department. 

II. By writing outlines before lessons are given, and after prin- 
ciples have been discussed. By giving certain lessons to fellow 
pupil-teachers for the purpose of awakening discussion and criti- 
cism — the lessons being those intended for the older children. 
Lectures may prepare the way for these outlines of lessons, and 



156 APPENDIX. 

the outlines may furnish texts for other lectures. Books and 
periodicals devoted to methods may be used after pupil-teachers 
have been led to devise methods of their own, 

17. Until a pupil-teacher has shown by her responsiveness in the 
daily lessons that she possesses the power to comprehend the prin- 
ciples of pedagogy, she should not be allowed to outline lessons 
for children. Until she can write a good outline of a lesson, she 
should not be allowed to give the lesson. Until she can give the 
lessons previously outlined by her and criticised by her teachers, 
in such a way as to hold the attention of a class of children, she 
should not receive a diploma. 



APPENDIX II 

OPINIONS SUBMITTED TO THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE 
CORRELATION OF STUDIES IN ELEMENTARY EDUCA- 
TION 

The following are the questions in answer to which the 
opinions were written : 

1. Should the elementary course be eight years, and the 
secondary course four years, as at present? Or, should the 
elementary course be six years and the secondary course six 
years ? 

2. Has each of the grammar-school studies — language 
(including reading, spelling, grammar, composition), mathe- 
matics (arithmetic, algebra, plane geometry), geography, his- 
tory, natural science (botany, zoology, mineralogy), penman- 
ship, drawing, etc. — a distinct pedagogical value? If so, what 
is it? 

3. Should other subjects than those enumerated in the 
second question, such as manual training (including sloyd, 
sewing, and cooking), physical culture, physics, music, physi- 
ology (including the effects of stimulants and narcotics), Latin, 
or a modern language, be taught in the elementary-school 
course? If so, why? 

4. Should the sequence of topics be determined by the 
logical development of the subject, or by the child's power to 
apperceive new ideas? Or, to any extent by the evolutionary 
steps manifested by the race? If so, by the evolution of the 
race to which the child belongs, or that of the human race? 

5. What should be the purpose of attempting a close corre- 
lation of studres? 

(a) To prevent duplication, eliminate non-essentials, and save 

time and effort ? 
(d) To develop the apperceiving power of the mind ? 
(^) To develop character, — a purely ethical purpose ? 

157 



158 APPENDIX. 

6. Is it possible on any basis to correlate or unify all the 
studies of the elementary school? 

7. If not, may they be divided into two or more groups, 
those of each group being correlated ? 

8. Is there any way of correlating the results of work in all 
the groups ? 

9. What should be the length of recitation periods in each 
year of the elementary-school course? What considerations 
should determine the length ? 

10. In what year of the course should each of the subjects 
mentioned in questions 2 and 3 be introduced, if introduced 
at all ? 

11. In making a programme, should time be assigned for 
each subject, or only for the groups of subjects suggested in 
question 7? 

12. How many hours a week for how many years should be 
devoted to each subject, or each group of subjects? 

13. What topics may be covered in each subject, or each 
group of subjects? 

14. Should any subject, or group of subjects, be treated 
differently for pupils who leave school at twelve, thirteen, or 
fourteen years of age, and for those who are going to a high 
school ? 

15. Can any description be given of the best method of 
teaching each subject, or group of subjects, throughout the 
school course ? 

16. What considerations should determine the point at 
which the specialization of the work of teachers should begin? 

17. On what principle should the promotion of pupils from 
grade to grade be determined ? Who should make the deter- 
mination ? 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 1 59 



Emily G. Bridgham, Grammar School No. 3, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

9. The attention of young children cannot be long sustained 
upon one subject, and primary instruction should be presented in 
smallest details. The length of period of recitation cannot be 
exactly prescribed, as the lesson should cease whenever interest 
flags. No child in elementary school can, with profit, be kept 
longer than forty minutes upon a memory, or verbal, recitation ; in 
the primary grades, twenty minutes should be the maximum. 

Considerations which determine length of recitation should be : 
I. Interest in the subject ; 2. The relation of the subject to other 
topics of the day ; 3. The relation the portion of lesson bears to 
portion assigned the class. 

10. The introduction of any study into school course should be 
guided by its relation to child's present experience and lines of 
interest. Too many studies are advocated because of their sup- 
posed practical usefulness in after life. 

When the broadest view of a teacher's work becomes more nearly 
universal, and when very much less teaching is done for examina- 
tion, there will be no danger in crowding the curriculum of infant 
years. " Children are not worked to death," says President Eliot, 
"but they are bored to death." It is better to give many subjects 
of many-sided interests to children, rather than dole out to them a 
few matters for the sake of thoroughness in them. The powers of 
observation, which children possess in such keenness, should have 
abundance of material for their fostering. Children may, at first, 
be permitted to flit from flower to flower, before settling down to 
thorough detail ; for thoroughness requires a concentration of 
mind and a tenacity of purpose not to be expected of the young. 

Language (except grammar and composition) 1st year. 

(Synthesis of sentences as soon as permissible.) 

Composition 5th year. 

Technical grammar 7th year. 

Arithmetic 1st year. 

(Number first presented in concrete, as soon as pos- 
sible taken in abstract. Examples requiring maturity 
of thought omitted in grades below high school.) 

Algebra. Taken slowly ; equation made prominent "th year. 

Geometry (inventional) last half of 7th year. 

(With time given for inventive genius to bud.) 
History 5th year. 

(Narrative from general history, leading to biogra- 
phy and American history.) 
Nature studies 4th year. 

(Observation-work ist year.) 

Penmanship and drawing and music ist year. 

Physiology 7th year. 

Physics 6th year. 

Physical culture ist year. 

17. If success of a teacher were not so frequently based upon 
results of her class at final tests, thus rendering her loath to part 



l6o APPENDIX. 

with creditable pupils, promotions should take place whenever child 
is able to do work of succeeding class. 

Pupils who fail to do the work of a grade in the time allotted 
would be greatly benefited by reviewing the work with another 
teacher, and perhaps with different books. The establishment of 
duplicate grades, at certain points, would prove advantageous. 

Class teachers are not infallible in the estimate of their own 
work ; therefore, as a requirement for promotion, it seems advis- 
able to use, in addition to teacher's estimate, a written test made 
by some one else. 

Examinations have been greatly abused, it is true ; but this 
abuse has arisen from lack of pedagogical skill, for these crucial 
tests need not always occur at close of term, nor need they ever 
be held at announced or stated periods. 

A written examination along same lines which teacher has pursued, 
and conducted by a principal whose supervision has been a guid- 
ance and an inspiration, would, in my judgment, result in improved 
material for advanced classes. 



W. M. Bryant, High School, St. Louis, Mo. 

1. Elementary course ought to remain eight years, as at present, 
especially on account of difference in modes of discipline. 

2. I consider the pedagogical value of the grammar-school studies 
to be as follows : 

(i) Language is the objective form of thought Concepts can 
be matured only through mastery of names as objective forms of 
concepts. Spelling (always written, of course), in connection with 
elementary etymology, aids in rendering concepts precise through 
the more precise apprehension of their objective forms. Grammar 
classifies the mind through the whole range of logical forms; 
"terms" (as objective forms of concepts) being specially defined 
through etymology, " propositions " through the study of simple 
sentences, and the '' syllogism " (informally) through the study of 
complex and compound sentences. In etymology, the child is 
familiarized with the elements of thought (/. <?., concepts). In syntax, 
he is exercised in the analysis and synthesis of the actual forms of 
explicit thought, which consist, first, in the comj^arison of concepts, 
and, second, in the comparison of judgments (through their object- 
ive forms, viz., propositions). Reading is the practicing of the critical 
power thus trained, while composition is (predominantly) the prac- 
ticing of the constructive power thus developed. 

(2) Mathematics has the pedagogical value of strengthening the 
demand for precision of forms. It insists upon perfection of 
results, refuses credit for approximate results. In arithmetic and 
algebra it compels attention to the relations involved, through 
extreme abstractness of the symbols employed. The study of 
geometry disciplines the imagination to rigid exactness of form. 
It disciplines the understanding to the recognition of identities in 
types of forms. The limitation of mathematics is that it emphasizes 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. l6l 

identity to the exclusion of differences, rather than identity as ini 
the midst of differences ; that is, it subordinates difference to iden- 
tity instead of co-ordinating it with identity. It even attempts to 
eliminate the difference between difference and identity ; as when 
it atomizes the curve, and thus sees in it only a succession of 
" strai,2;^ht lines," these being conceived to be such only when 
"infinitely short," /. ^., only when they have ceased to have dimen- 
sions, i.e., when they have ceased to be lines at all. It deals, in 
fact, only with extensive quantity, and ignores intensive quantity 
in its essential character of quality. Mathematics thus proves 
inadequate as a means to discipline the judgment. This, indeed 
is no " fault " of mathematics, but only its inherent limitation. 

(3) The pedagogical lack on the part of mathematics is supplied, 
in simple form, by the natural sciences. In its entire range physics 
is, in large measure, nothing else than applied mathematics, and 
hence extends discipline in intellectual habits of precision. But, 
also, as dealing with concrete phenomena, it serves to exercise both 
understanding and judgment : the former in recognizing identities 
(classifying modes of energy, the special forms involved in applied 
mechanics, etc.); the latter in estimating differences (as of fibers 
of materials, various phases of strain, effects in change of form of 
mechanism, as in levers). 

Yet within the sphere of the grammar school but little of expli- 
citly quantitative physics can be made use of. Only the descriptive 
phases illustrated by actual experiment and embodying in the sim- 
plest way the fundamental principles of the science can be success- 
fully dealt with by pupils under fourteen years of age. For such 
pupils (those of last four years of grammar-school course) a graded 
series of experiments has the pedagogical value of stimulating care- 
fulness in observation of details, on the one hand, and of awaking 
interest in the universal (however abstract and mechanical) aspects 
of energy, on the other. Cheniistjy, again, even in such simple 
experiments as are applicable here, not only reveals the special rela- 
tion between quantity (in its extensive aspect) and quality (which 
is merely quantity in its intensive aspect), but it also opens the way 
for the comprehension of the inner mechanism of organic processes. 
And, again, the elements of biology serve specially well as a means 
to cultivate the power of accurate observation \i. e., the exercise of 
perception regulated and clarified through direct subordination to 
reflection), just as they serve further to awaken the mind to a recog- 
nition of the universal and (as compared with those unfolded in 
physics) highly concrete aspects of energy as manifested in the 
various types of organisms, including the whole process of the evo- 
lution of the individual as the concrete embodiment of the type, 
work specially adapted to exercise of judgment. 

(4) Geography is the co-ordination of organic and inorganic forms 
with special reference to place of abode and means of subsistence 
for man ; as 

(5) History is the tracing of the process of human evolution as 
taking place under such conditions. It is, in fact, through the 
study of the natural sciences, supplemented by geography and his- 



1 62 APPENDIX. 

tory, that the individual is made clearly aware of the world as his 
own immediate, concrete, inexorable " environment " in the sense 
of that total-sum-of-conditions upon actual rational relation with 
which his own evolution as a normal individual depends. The 
study of the natural sciences (whether in elementary or advanced 
form), supplemented by the study of geography and history, has, 
therefore, this twofold pedagogical value : (a) that in such study 
the mind is trained intellectually to observation — /. e., the recogni- 
tion of universal modes of energy and types of forms as manifested 
in particular examples ; and {^) that there is awakened and stimu- 
lated the ethical conviction that only through law and order is any 
real life for man attainable. 

3. I consider mamial training desirable as part of elementary 
education in so far as it serves to render pupils clearly conscious 
(i) of the peculiarity of textures of woods and metals, etc., (2) of 
t'he chief (geometrical) forms involved in manufacture, and (3) in 
so far as it serves to bring eye and hand into definite practical sub- 
ordination as actual organs of the mind. Physical culture and physi- 
ology I would admit to a limited measure of time and attention 
upon the same ground (of increased efficiency of physical structure 
as organic to mental function), carefully restricting them within 
that limit. I would include music as the normal, most direct, and 
most adequate form in which the emotional aspect of the mind can 
be expressed. I would introduce Latin as early as the beginning 
of the seventh year ; and this for the purpose of emphasizing the 
significance of variation of form as a means of precisely expressing 
the various shades of meaning involved in the same universal con- 
cept. One of the modern languages ought also to be studied, 
beginning with the sixth or even fifth year ; and this for the pur- 
pose of comparison as between different forms of expressing the 
same general degree of (modern) thought. For this purpose the 
language of one of the more highly cultivated modern nations 
would, of course, prove most serviceable. (The less highly culti- 
vated nations are, in effect, not "modern.") Hence either German 
or French or Italian should be chosen. 

The study of any foreign language (but most of all a highly 
developed one) must react upon that of the native language, thus 
rendering the consciousness of the native forms of expression more 
precise, and, through this, clarifying the thought and invigorating, 
the whole mind of the individual. 

4. Sequence of topics for pedagogical purposes must of course 
first of all bear reference to the order of development of the 
individual mind. For this reason, as far as practicable, the pupil 
ought to be led through observation of particular instances to the 
recognition that these are really only particular instances of univer- 
sal forms, types, principles, truths. For the teacher these universal 
aspects are, indeed, presuppositions — having become such in 
explicit degree through repeated tracing of the whole ground. For 
the pupil they are unknown and (mainly) unsuspected. For him 
the course is one of discovery (induction). For the teacher the 
course is one (largely) of demonstration (essentially deduction, 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 163 

though formally induction). It is, in truth, thus only that he can 
securely lead the pupil through the noting of particular facts to 
clear consciousness of universal principles. The process will no 
doubt conform mainly to the essential evolutionary steps of the 
race (both that particular race to which the child belongs and to 
the human race in general). 

5. The essential purpose in correlating studies is that of perfect- 
ing the total complex medium for the unfolding of the total com- 
plex unit, mind, as at once intellectual, ethical, and (in healthy 
sense) emotional. 

6. All studies, elementary and advanced, can be correlated under 
the complementary aspects of physical and spiritual. Outer and 
inner mathematics is the science of universal abstract forms. 
Physics and chemistry are the supplementary aspects of the univer- 
sal abstract science of forces (modes of energy). Biology is the 
science of the fundamental concrete unfolding of types of organic 
units expressing essential modes of energy in clearly defined forms. 
Man is the unit in which all these converge (he is literally the 
"microcosm"), and hence (as intimated diboYQ) geography is prop- 
erly to be regarded as simply a descriptive summarizing of the 
total sum of outer conditions of human development, as history is 
the tracing of the outlines of that development, while language is at 
once its record and also its subtlest medium. 

9. Length of recitation ought to be determined by average power 
of attention on part of pupils of the given grade. 

14. No. The subjects being chosen presumably with reference 
to truest growth of mind in any case. 

15. No. Method is first of all and essentially an expression of 
the personality of the teacher. If personal idiosyncrasies are so 
great as to render the work capriciously only one-sided, that is 
evidence that the teacher has not been really educated, or that he 
is inherently not well balanced, and hence ought not to be allowed 
a place in the schoolroom at all. Sound of mind (intellectually 
and ethically) and well educated, the individual is his own best 
method. Subjected to any prescribed " method " (in point of detail), 
his work must become mechanical, /. e , brutal — ineffective for good, 
effective only for evil. 

16. To this I answer: Effeitivejicss of total work, (i) intellectu- 
ally, (2) ethically. The higher the degree of actual cultivatfon and 
self-command on the part of the teacher employed, the earlier can 
specialization be profitably undertaken. Ideally it ought to begin 
with the beginning of the first day of the first year. 

17. On the principle that those who have taught them know best 
what their actual attainments are. As a check upon one-sidedness 
of inexperienced teachers, an examination on a set of questions 
from the " central office " ought doubtless to be held. But in 
every case this again ought to be conducted and the papers 
marked by the teacher who has had charge of the class in the given 
subject. 



164 APPENDIX. 

B. T. Davis, Sjipcrintendcnt of Schools, \\\won-A, Minn. 

10. Elementary education should be introduced with kinder- 
garten instruction at about four years. I'he child will begin by 
acting and doing, the handling of things and the working out, 
through forms, his ideas and thought as developed to him. He wi.l 
begin by the handling of forms, seeing and observing ; following 
this by making and representing, and will be gradually led from the 
very concrete representations to more abstract written forms, fol- 
lowing with oral and written language, through which reading soon 
becomes a part, and numbers have been a concrete companion from 
the start. Color has also been a companion of form. Nature study 
has been introduced from the very start. The child has been 
taught to observe, interpret, and express the ideas and thoughts 
arising in its own environment. During the first and second years 
language, with all of its parts (written and spoken, etc.), including 
reading, science, penmanship, drawing, music, and physical culture, 
have all formed parts of the course of instruction, giving suitable 
variety to claim the child's interest and attention, and calling forth 
all of the activities of the child's nature. At the third year, geog- 
raphy should be introduced, although it has been formerly touched 
upon as drawing or form, with perhaps related place exercises. 
Although introduced as geography in the third year, it is still largely 
a matter of form, place, and physical representation, gaining its more 
distinctive character as the work progresses and the child's strength 
and power of comprehension increase. History should be intro- 
duced in the form of stories and biographical sketches, and more 
formally as narrative reading or story work, about the fifth year. 
Handcraft, in various forms, should be correlated with drawing from 
the very start. Later in the course, special drawing may find its 
suitable time and place in the various subjects of the course, and 
the drawing time may be quite largely devoted to handcraft, draw- 
ing being its constant companion. Physiology, or hygiene, and 
physics should hold their proper and related places in the science 
work above indicated. Modern language or Latin might find a 
suitable place in the seventh or eighth year. The elements of 
algebra or geometry should find a correlated relation to arithmetic, 
and should have a place in the seventh or eighth year in this form, 
while much of the more simple introductory elements of geometry 
have found a correlated place in form study (drawing) almost from 
the very start. 

11. In making a programme, time should be assigned for each 
leading subject. Those things introduced wholly in a correlated 
way should have a time only as they appropriately appear in con- 
nection with the subjects of the formal programme. 

12. In the first, second, third, and fourth years of the course, three 
hours each week should be devoted to drawing (form, color, and 
handcraft); three hours to reading (spelling, reader work, language, 
and supplementary and original composition); two and one-half 
hours to language ; two and one-half hours to writing ; three hours 
to numbers ; two and one-half hours to physical culture and recrea- 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 1 65 

tion ; three hours to general lessons (elementary science, history 
stories, fairy tales, etc.); the same order should be observed. In 
the third and fourth years, geography will find a place by increasing 
the time of the school day thirty minutes, giving two and one-haff 
hours each week to this subject. In the fifth, sixth, seventh, and 
eighth years, history should find a place by reducing the time 
given to writing, reading, and general lessons. This subject should 
occupy about three hours each week during the last four years of 
the elementary course. Where algebra and geometry are intro- 
duced in part of the eighth year, it is substituted at the time assigned 
to numbers. Where Latin or a modern language is introduced, it 
should appear at the language period, which otherwise should be 
interpreted as English. 

13. The answer to this question maybe inferred in part from the 
answer given to number 12 in the parenthetical parts. While these 
topics have separate times on all formal programmes, the correlated 
relation should not be overlooked. The work in drawing should 
early become a means of expression, and find a place in nearly all 
parts of the programme. Language should pervade the entire pro- 
gramme, and in this sense the whole programme may be said to be 
language ; yet a language period is necessary, that some of the more 
important language forms and technical points relating to this sub- 
ject may find a special time and a different opportunity for treat- 
ment. Spelling has a relation to every subject and a place in every 
subject, yet the attempt to teach spelling wholly in this correlated 
way is to neglect it. There must be a special time at which spelling 
is systematically and regularly considered. Otherwise, it is neg- 
lected, and the result is poor spelling. Reading early becomes a 
part of the number work, the language work, general lessons, geog- 
raphy, history, and music. Yet we must have a special time for 
reading, that will give especial attention to the expression and the 
details of the subject. This time may be reduced later in the course, 
if the work has been well done at the beginning. General lessons 
should have a very intimate and direct relation to language, as do 
geography, history (when introduced), furnishing the subjects for 
thought ; the thought side being developed in these classes, and 
the language side receiving especial attention in the language class 
and at the language hour. This question, to be fully answered, 
would require tedious' enumeration. I will not expand further, but 
will refer you to the course of study in the manual for these 
schools, which I send you under another cover. 



B. C. Gregory, Supervising Principal of Public Schools, 

Trenton, N. J. 

I. I cannot see any reason for reducing the elementary course 
to six years. I think, however, that such a reduction is to be in- 
ferred from the recommendations of the Committee of Ten. Ordi- 
narily I should regard the termination of the elementary course 
at any given point as a matter purely of convenience, were it not 



l66 APPENDIX. 

for the question of depart mental teaehinij which enters into the 
question. The secondary sciiools necessarily imply dejxxrtniental 
teachinof, and 1 am opposed to departmental teachinjj^ until the 
child has finished at least eit^ht years of his elementary course ; 
this involves the discussion of question 16. 1 am very radical 
on this question of departmental teaching ; I do not believe in 
it at all at any time, but recognize that there comes a time when 
there is no other method possil)le. The scope of the subjects 
taught in high schools is so great that no one man can do more 
than obtain a fair mastery over one of them ; to master several 
of them is simply out of the question. Departmental teaching is, 
therefore, forced on us, not because the teaching is better, but 
because several subjects cannot be mastered by one teacher ; I 
should therefore answer (piestion 16 by saying that the considera- 
tion which should determine the point at which the specialization in 
tlie work of the teacher should begin is the ct>nsideration of neces- 
sity. My reasons for objecting to the special-teacher system are 
the following : 

(i) The boy during the grammar-school age needs a teacher's 
care. She must understand him thoroughly, and a teacher who 
teaches a boy in all subjects can understand him more thoroughly 
than a special teacher can ; she could adapt her teaching to his 
peculiar needs with accuracy. The charge against the public 
schools is, that the children are taken in masses, and their individ- 
ualitv is not considered. The departmental system exaggerates 
this trouble because no one teacher understamls the boy thor- 
oughly. The class teacher can individualize her instruction ; she 
can find out what is his peculiar bent, what subjects can be 
gone over rapidly, and what subjects can receive more minute 
attention. 

(2) Related to the above is the fact that in specialized teaching 
just so much time, say forty minutes, must be given to each boy in 
each subject ; each boy must have forty minutes in arithmetic, 
forty minutes in grammar, etc. ; no other state of things is possible 
where the children spend a certain period in each room. Now, with 
the class teacher it is ascertained very quickly that some boys do 
not need forty minutes in arithmetic, but need sixty in language, 
and the teacher distributes her force so as to bring to bear upon 
each pupil just what he needs. 

(3) Departmental teaching makes correlation of studies very diffi- 
cult. The tendency of departmental teachers is to consider each 
his own subject without reference to its relations. 1 do not say 
that departmental teachers do this, but that the tendency is in 
that direction, and to overcome this a principal must give very 
careful supervision, and when he has done his best he does not 
obtain from his departmental teachers that correlation of studies 
which a teacher can who is teaching the several studies to be cor- 
related. The specialized teaching leaves out what is known as 
co-ordination. One of the evils of public-school teaching is, that 
each subject is considered entirely independent of the other, and 
this is a most unnatural state of things ; for instance, no matter 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 1 6/ 

how carefully a boy is taught writing during the penmanship lesson, 
he generally considers that he has nothing to do with penmanship 
when he turns his attention to the language lesson ; or he may be 
very carefully instructed in correct language during the language 
lesson, and if he has to write an exercise in geography he considers 
that the rules of language do not apply. 

(4) Again, the psychological aspect of correlation, which 1 discuss 
below, has a bearing on the case ; I think it is impossible to make 
that psychological consideration effective if several teachers have 
one pupil. 

(5) Again, my experience is that the moment an all-round teacher 
takes up departmental work she becomes narrow ; I have known a 
few exceptions to this rule, but the rule is as I have given it. 

(6) Lastly, if any subject should be specialized, it is moral train- 
ing, but moral training must take a subordinate place in the depart- 
mental system. Where a child has five teachers instead of one, 
nobody can become intimately acquainted with his moral nature, and 
I respectfully submit that this is one of the most important features 
of the teacher's work. The special teacher is not in a favorable 
position to give this training. She has to overlook it or lose the 
sense of responsibility which must form the basis of moral train- 
ing. To the all-round teacher, moral training is an important 
matter. The teacher of arithmetic, on the contrary, is apt to think 
that her work is arithmetic, and that moral training is incidental. 
Moral training requires continued attention, steady effort, and this 
is a difficult matter where the teacher sees the pupil but forty 
minutes a day. The special teacher is not in a favorable position 
to give this training ; her responsibility is to the subject she 
teaches, and she is likely to overlook the necessity of moral train- 
ing, or at least resort to such temporary expedients as shall secure 
results while the child is taking liis period with her. 

I have been a little lengthy over this question because it seems 
to me that it is the key to the answer to question i. I believe 
that the objections I have urged against departmental teaching 
apply even in the high school ; but, as I have said before, in the 
high school the difficulty of mastering more than one subject is so 
great that departmental teaching becomes a necessity. I would 
postpone the departmental teaching to the ninth year, because I be- 
lieve up to this time the boy can be more successfully handled by 
the all-round teacher. 

1 am sorry to find myself in opposition to yourself and many 
other educators on this subject, but, after having carefully weighed 
the merits of the question, and been made sadly conscious of the 
evils of departmental teaching in Trenton, 1 am compelled to main- 
tain my position as opposed to departmental teaching prior to 
the ninth year in school. 

2 and 3. This is a tremendous question. I fear that my thought 
is not sufficiently crystallized to answer you very philosophically. 
Will you allow me to consider questions 2 and 3 as one question, 
and to present my answer in a somewhat less categorical way than 
is demanded in your questions ? I desire to take the pedagogical 



l68 APPKNDIX. 

value as the hcadin.n' under wliicli 1 would (i;r<.)up my answers. 1 do 
this because 1 can answer cjuestions 6 and 7 and 8 in what seems to 
me to be a more philosophical manner than if I take up each sub- 
ject by itself. The classification of values which 1 offer is not very 
scientific, but, on the other hand, rather superficial Jt seems, how- 
ever, to me to be sufficiently exact to furnish a basis for argument, 
although not exact enough to base a completed scheme of correla- 
tion on. 

(i) To begin with, some of the studies relate to the physical con- 
dition ; these are hygiene and physical culture. 

(2) Several of the studies bear a very important relation to the 
training of the botly. Penmanship and drawmg look to a co-ordina- 
tion of special muscles. Manual training has for one of its pur- 
poses a very important co-ordination of muscles. Apart from the 
considerations of health, physical culture looks to a co-ordination of 
muscles. 

(3) Several of the studies are partially, and in some cases princi- 
pally, valuable because they furnish the automatic means by which 
further acquirements are made possible. Penmanship is valuable 
largely for this reason. Drawing is valuable to a very considerable 
extent for the same reason. Language, up to a certain point, is to 
be considered merely the automatic means by which we receive or 
communicate thought. Arithmetic has its automatic side, too often 
left out of consideration. 

(4) Several of these studies have an ol)scrvalional phase. The 
natural sciences are conspicuously valuable because they train the 
observation. The training in language has an observational side 
of considerable importance, not always sufficiently considered. 
Manual training has a very important observational side. There is 
also an observational side to the teaching of language and even 
music. Drawing is emphatically an observational study. 

(5) Related to the foregoing is the fact that several of these 
studies deal particularly with the concrete, and are, therefore, 
related in a very close manner to the observational studies. Among 
these studies are the sciences, plane and inventional geometry, and 
manual training. 

(6) Several of the studies offer opportunities for tlie develop- 
ment of the judgment ; they involve not only observation but com- 
parison, and therefore they tend in a peculiar way to exactness in 
thought and in manual operations. Manual training is one of these 
studies, geometry is another, algebra another, and drawing another. 

(7) The reason under various aspects is trained by mathematics, 
history, geography, sciences, and language. In some cases the 
inductive processes are developed and generalizations are made, 
and in other cases the reasoning is deductive. Algebra, for in- 
stance, is peculiarly valuable because it favors the process of gen- 
eralization. 

(8) Imagination is trained in geography, in history, in language, 
and frequently in the teaching of natural sciences. 

(9) Most of the studies are, to a greater or less extent, memory 
studies ; some of them have been made too much so. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 1 69 

(10) Studies which develop the aesthetic emotion deserve separate 
consideration. Drawing, music, natural science, and literature 
deserve consideration here. This may be said to be covered by the 
studies which develop the imagination. I have made a separate 
classification because 1 wish to lay special emphasis on the cesthctic 
imagination. 

(11) Training of the moral sentiments, and therefore the training 
of the will, call in such studies as history, physical culture, and 
hygiene, the latter because the consideration of the body tends to 
the consideration of sobriety, self-control, etc. 

It ought to be observed that such distinctions as these, or any 
other distinctions, do not permit of accurate lines of demarcation ; 
for instance, referring to the studies which are intended to be con- 
sidered on their automatic side, it is perfectly clear that even in 
developing automatic power we develop at the same tim.e the 
observing power, and some power of reasoning and imagination. 
It will be noticed, further, that in considering the various studies 
each study falls under several classifications. 

Answering question 3 S|)ecifically, I would introduce every sub- 
ject named into the elementary course excepting the languages ; by 
and by they may be introduced, but my observation leads me to 
believe that children have not the power of comparison sufficiently 
developed to take in the idiomatic construction of other languages. 
All they get, even if they are successfully taught, is an automatic 
use, within very narrow limits, of another language, and I do not 
see any place for this in' the school course. 

I have answered your questions in this peculiar way because I 
wish to base the correlation on psychological considerations rather 
than on any arbitrary grouping of studies. 

4. The sequence should be determined by the child's power to 
apperceive new ideas. As the apperception may lead in several 
directions, the logical devel(Ji)ment of the subject should be the 
secondary consideration determining which of these directions 
should be taken ; this is discussed a little more at length in answers 
to questions 0, 7, and 8. The considerations relating to " the evolu- 
tionary steps manifested by the race " belong to the nebulous mat- 
ter to which I have referred at the beginning of this article. I 
mean that the subject seems to me to be in its infancy ; it is 
involved with the most difficult sociological questions, and depends 
for its answer on the answers to questions which sociology only can 
give. I have failed to find in educational writings anything more 
than the most general propositions, and much that is written on the 
subject seems to me to belong to the domain of platitude. If I 
should answer the second half of the question directly, I should say, 
yes, certainly, and I would give the preference rather to the human 
race than to the race to which the child belongs. I do not mean to 
imply by what I have said that nothing has been discovered by 
which we may institute a parallel between the evolution of the race 
and the evolution of the child. Certain broad propositions are 
sufficiently clear, but when we commence to deal with details I find 
myself in very great doubt, I do not think that the evolution of 



I/O APPENDIX. 

the race furnishes us as yet with definite standards to aid us in 
arriving at the truth ; I would rather trust to the considerations 
drawn from embryology than from sociology ; I think at present 
they are far more instructive and definite. One thing is sure : the 
regular teacher will for a long time be little affected by sociological 
considerations. 

5. Postponed. (See after question 8.) 

6, 7, and 8. I cannot approach the subject of correlation from 
the standpoints suggested in questions 6 and 7, and 1 am not sure 
that I understand what is meant by correlating the results of work. 

It occurs to me that the word ''correlation" is frequently used, 
like the word "co-ordination," to indicate, not correlation, but some 
method by which we may teach two subjects at once, as when we 
teach reading and history by reading history. If correlation be 
thus limited in its signification, I think that the subject is simplified 
very much, and becomes a series of devices for combining subjects. 
My conception of correlation takes in not only this, but also the 
broader idea involved in the literal meaning of the word ; /. <?., it 
looks not only to the combination of subjects, but even, where that 
is not possible, to correlation. Two subjects may be regarded as 
kindred, and should be taught in conjunction, the one with the 
other, even when they cannot be actually combined in one lesson. 

With this preliminary statement in mind, I refer to my long 
analysis under the head of questions 2 and 3. I am aware that this 
analysis involves nothing new ; it enables me, however, to answer 
questions 6 and 7 more in accordance with my own lines of think- 
ing. The central thought is, that the correlation is based on these 
conditions, physical or psychical, which are to be associated with 
any given age or state of progress of children. The kindergarten 
recognizes this theory fully, and the morning talk is the means 
of correlation. If this suggestion of Froebel's be extended with 
suitable modifications to cover the whole of the school course, I 
think we have a starting point in theory, at least, for the construc- 
tion of a correlated course of study. 

To illustrate, take the child at the beginning of his course of 
instruction, the classification already alluded to. Thus, the ques- 
tion of health is important ; such a treatment of physical culture 
and hygiene, therefore, as is appropriate to that age, must be given, 
and those two subjects may easily be co-ordinated. The training and 
co-ordination of the muscles of the body begin at this point, and, 
indeed, are exceedingly important. Such training and co-ordination 
as belong to the age of the child having been decided upon, we may 
thus select from the subjects of penmanship, drawing, manual 
training, physical culture, etc., the exercises answering the purpose. 
These subjects should be correlated with the main purpose in view. 
Considering the fact already noted, that certain studies are valuable 
as the automatic means by which every attainment is made, as was 
indicated in the third class of studies above, the peculiar bent which 
is to be given to the teaching of penmanship, drawing, language, 
and arithmetic, from this point of view, is evident. In practice the 
automatic naiure of the result to be accomplished is not usually 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. I/I 

kept in view. The means employed in the teaching of these studies 
are illogical. Again, this time of life is peculiarly the time when 
the observing powers need training ; here is the function of natural 
science, manual training, music, and drawing, so far as they cul- 
tivate the observation. 

I have gone far enough to indicate a scheme. Granting that cer- 
tain physical or psychological objects are proper at a given age or 
state of progress, these objects furnish the basis of classification 
under which the correlation is to be made. The arrangement of 
the programme with this in view is another consideration, to be 
touched upon later ; I frankly admit that it is a very difficult con- 
sideration. 

There is another correlation which is evident from the classifica- 
tion I have given, and that is the correlation of purposes. In the 
foregoing classification I have named ten different purposes. I do 
not consider this as an exclusive list ; but, assuming it to be the list 
for the present, it is easy to see, for example, that matters of health 
and matters of physical co-ordmation are easily correlated. It is 
also easy to see that the training of the observation can be very 
closely related in certain stages of progress to the training of the 
imagination, and in other stages of progress to the training of the 
reason. The teaching of natural science illustrates this proposition. 
After the earlier years have been passed, the studies in natural 
science involve such a close connection between the observation 
and the reason that the line of demarcation is very hard to draw. 
This is a case in which two purposes of instruction are correlated 
in one study. The correlation of two different purposes may in- 
volve the correlation of two different studies, as when drawing and 
geometry are correlated, the use of the observation being correlated 
with questions of exactness involving the judgment, and even 
matters of reason involved in the geometrical process. I am aware 
that this will seem very vague ; I offer it merely as a starting point 
in the investigation of a subject on which, so far, very little that is 
definite has been added to our knowledge. 

5. Yes to {a), [b), (<r). A special remark is necessary in connec- 
tion with [c), if I am to understand the development of character as 
something larger than the ethical purpose referred to in the second 
half of [c). I do not see how the individuality of the child can be 
developed unless we proceed in accordance with the lines I have 
marked out, or other lines founded on a similar classification. 
Reading has no meaning in itself ; it does not suggest character 
development or ethical development, buti)oth are involved in read- 
ing. The development of character, however, is a very composite 
process, involving the development of all the powers of the mind 
and their physical expressions ; the attention should therefore be 
concentrated on the particular power or function to be developed, 
and the correlation should be made with this in view. 

Referring for a moment to sentence {b), I think that the apper- 
ceiving power of the mind expresses itself through various channels, 
and the classification of these various departments of action is not 
based logically on studies, but on function. 



172 APPENDIX. 

9. I do not try to answer the first half excepting to say, what 
everybody knows, that the recitations in the earHer years of the 
elementary course should be short. I think that the prominent 
consideration that determines the length of a recitation is that of 
interest ; this is especially true in the case of younger children ; and 
as interest has a direct relation to the vital force of the child, the 
hitter is necessarily involved. In later years a very important con- 
sideration is the strength of the will, by which the student compels 
attention to a subject not very interesting. I believe, however, 
with Sully, that the limit of this power is very soon reached, and we 
come back, after all, to the consideration of interest. The adjust- 
ment of a programme is very important in view of the fact that the 
vitcd force of children declines perceptibly during the day and the 
arrangement of studies. The programme should take into account 
the decreasing power of the child to attend, and this fact also 
regulates the length of time which should be devoted to a given 
study ; e. g., the period should not be so long in the afternoon as 
in the morning. Again, those studies which can be more easily 
made interesting will admit of longer periods than those studies 
which cannot be made so interesting. And, finally, the ability of 
the teacher to engage the interest of the class is a very important 
consideration. A teacher whose power is limited must arrange her 
programme with shorter periods than a teacher whose power is 
greater in this respect. 

10. To answer this question in full would take more time than I 
have to give. Will you pardon me if I refer you to my course of 
study, recently issued, in which the matter is pretty fully discussed? 
If you have not a copy, I will try to send you one. The subject is 
also discussed in the latter part of my last report. In general, I 
desire to say, that the subjects in 10 should be introduced earlier 
than they have been introduced. The pedagogical considerations 
referred to in answer to questions 2 and 3 indicate the basis on 
which an answer is to be constructed. 

11. My thought is that all programmes should be elastic and 
should vary from day to day ; this need not prevent the teacher 
from making a formal programme subject to variations. I do not 
see how, at present, a programme can be made up that is not based 
on subjects ; but if the elastic nature of the programme is kept in 
mind, this need not interfere with the carrying out of the proposi- 
tions referred to in my answer to questions 6, 7, and 8. Each of 
the studies of the course at a given period of the child's advance- 
ment has some prominenf characteristic. Thus, in the earlier years 
the prominent function of the training in science is to develop the 
observation ; later on it becomes a subject in which generalization is 
more important than observation. Now, in the earlier years of the 
course, during the time assigned for natural science, it is entirely 
feasible to introduce language if the language is understood to be 
a means of recording the results of the observation, or to introduce 
drawing with the same purpose in view. Similarly, the language 
period may be used for the introduction of other studies which are 
intended to attain the same purpose that is proposed by the teacher 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 1 73 

as the principal object of the day's lesson. I do not see that any- 
thing would be gained yet by assigning a period to a group of sub- 
jects. I think that the development of the subject may some day 
indicate the propriety of arranging the day's programme on the basis 
of the purposes of instruction as indicated in questions 2 and 3. 
The difficulty here is that these purposes are continually running 
into and overlapping each other ; but this is correlation, and I do not 
see that it is a serious objection. A programme in which the first 
half-hour was given to observational studies, and the next half-hour 
to automatic studies, and the next half-hour to muscular training 
and co-ordination, and the next half-hour to the cultivation of the 
imagination, would be a singular programme ; and yet some such 
plan — not very clear to me, I admit — seems to be the outcome of the 
reasoning above, and I believe it will yet be found to be the key of 
the situation. 

12. See answer to question 11. I refer you again to my course 
of study. 

13. I refer to my course of study. I do not think that this is a 
perfect course of study, by any means, but it is somewhat in accord- 
ance with the above line of thought, and I would offer it merely as 
an approximation. I think I could do better if I should try again. 

14. No. If the psychological development is followed, there 
can be no exceptions, and the high school must be made to fit the 
boy if it is wrong ; the boy should not be made to fit the high school. 

15. I refer you to my last report for the year ending August 31, 
1893, pages 153 to 186. 

16. Already answered under question No. i. 

17. On their ability to take up the work of the next grade, not 
as ascertained, however, by an examination. The opinion of the 
teacher should be the important consideration. I am aware that 
this presents practical difficulties, because there are many teachers 
whose opinions are not worth considering ; but you must recollect 
that this objection applies to everything referred to in the whole 
circular. The method, I think, is the correct one. Teachers must 
be trained to meet this demand. It will be observed that the 
course of study proposed in the answers to your circular would 
enable a child to be promoted much more easily than under former 
courses of study ; such a course of study would fall under the 
classification "concentric " or " si)iral " courses of study, terms pretty 
well understood at this time. The fact that a child fails in history 
ought not to keep him from being promoted, as has been the case 
in former days. A failure in history may indicate a deficiency of 
imagination, or it may indicate a deficiency in the reasoning faculty ; 
and the indication thus afforded ought to be followed, and the 
deficiency made good if the nature of the child will permit it. This 
reasoning may sometimes indicate the classification of the child in 
two classes in different subjects, but should not prevent advance- 
ment unless the deficiencies are so general that the child is clearly 
unable to go on with his companions. This is the basis on which I' 
am working in Trenton, at least. 



174 APPENDIX. 

Paul H. Han us, Assistant Professor of the History 

and Art of Teaching, Harvard University. 

Ray Greene WuiAm^, Head Master of the 

English High School, Cambridge, Mass. 

Samuel T. Dutton, Superintendent of Schools, 

Brooklinc, Mass. 

Augustus H. Kelley, Head Master of the Lyman School, 

Boston, Mass. 
Frank A. Hill, Secretary of the 

State Board of Education, Boston, Mass. 

Charles H. Grandgent, Director of Modern 

Language Instructiofi, Boston, Mass. 

1. We call attention, in the first place, to the fact that in many- 
towns, where the school age is five, the length of the combined ele- 
mentary and secondary courses is not twelve but thirteen years ; 
and, in the second place, to the existence, in some institutions, of a 
third division, 9-3, not mentioned in the question. The arrange- 
ment 8-4 (or 9-4) seems to us the best of all. We like it better 
than the 9-3 (or 10-3) system, because we regard three years as too 
short a time for secondary training ; and we prefer it to the 6-6 (or 
7-6) division, because we fear the latter would encourage an early 
withdrawal of pupils from school. In any case, we favor the sepa- 
ration of the quick from the slow scholars, and the introduction of 
a double curriculum that will neither retard the progress of the 
abler pupils nor unduly hurry the duller ones. We believe, more- 
over, that courses must be so arranged and methods so shaped that 
the transition from the elementary to the secondary grade shall be 
scarcely perceptible. 

2. Each subject has, in the later elementary period — /. c, after the 
work has properly diverged into separate but more or less closely 
correlated subjects — a distinct pedagogical value. What it is in each 
case has never been demonstrated. In general, it may be said that 
each subject has a peculiar value for each pupil in at least two 
respects : (i) for the development of incentives — mental, moral, 
cesthetic, constructive, through interest; and (2) for the development 
o{ power [to think and to execute') and of desirable habits of expression 
and conduct. For these purposes the several subjects should be 
regarded by the teacher as instruments through which the pupil is to 
be discovered. It is only on the basis of such a discovery that the 
pupil's development of incentives, power, and habits can be intelli- 
gently stimulated and guided. 

With this general view of educational values in mind, the follow- 
ing details are suggested : 

Language and literature are valuable as instruments of acquisi- 
tion and expression, and literature is especially valuable for its 
"influence on aims and character. Reading, spelling, and " lan- 
guage " are helpful in all stages of elementary education ; grammar 
only in the latest stages. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. I75 

Mathematics introduces order into man's conception of the world, 
through number and form, and is further valuable as a means of 
forming habits of accurate perception of and deductive reasoning 
on mathematical data. The range of such habits, however, is nar- 
row, and they are not, to any considerable degree, transferable to 
other conceptions. Arithmetic is, besides its value for commercial 
purposes, also valuable, like both algebra and geometry, as an aid 
in the prosecution of other subjects. Concrete geometry has a 
special value in developing right concepts of the form and measure- 
ment of material objects, and demonstrative geometry a similar 
value in forming habits of deductive reasoning. Inasmuch as the 
ability to reason is late of development in most children, this form 
of geometry should be sparingly used in elementary schools. 

Geography is useful in leading the pupil to observe, compare, 
generalize (in a degree), and record facts relating to the earth's 
surface and its inhabitants. It is adapted to use with children in 
all but the lowest stages of elementary education, and has, like 
arithmetic, considerable commercial value. It is an important 
means of correlating nature study and literature and history study. 

History supplies information concerning man's experiences and 
achievements ; and by continually exercising the pupil's mind, at 
first unconsciously, but finally consciously, in repeated acts of judg- 
ing and reasoning in regard to the motives and the acts of nations 
and of individuals, it may be used as a means of developing high 
aims and habits of judicious thinking about men and affairs. 

The value of natural science lies in the readiness with which it 
lends itself to the formation of habits of accurate observation, accu- 
rate recording, and inductive reasoning. The Hrst of these, obser- 
vation, is the aim to be chiefly sought by this means in elementary 
schools. Each of the three branches named, botany, zoology, and 
mineralogy, have also some information value, but that value de- 
pends somewhat upon the subsequent career of the child. 

Penmanship is valuable as a means of communication with others 
(and doubtless also as an aid to precise thinking). 

Drawing gives the mind, through the eye, correct habits of per- 
ceiving form and proportion, and through the hand correct habits 
of expressing these qualities. (Some color training is also wise.) 
It also creates in many the beginnings of an appreciation of art, 
and so adds another to the refined pleasures of life. 

3. Other subjects than those mentioned above should be taught 
in the elementary-school course. 

Elementary instruction in art should accompany the v/ork in 
history and literature. For this purpose busts and casts should be 
available, that the pupils may learn to know and to appreciate these 
achievements of men, as well as the directly " useful " products of 
human effort. 

Manual training (including sloyd, sewing, and cooking) should 
be taught in these schools, for its value, (i) as supplying useful 
information, (2) as a means of developing habits of construction 
(one form of expression), and (3) as a test of the pupil's aptitude, 
and so as a guide to his future studies and occupations. (Some 



176 APPENDIX. 

pupils respond to this stimulus who have previously been unre- 
sponsive.) 

Physical culture, with the element of play made prominent, 
should be taught in order to counteract the injurious tendency of 
indoor conlinement and other ordinary school conditions, and in 
order to promote systematically the child's normal physical devel- 
opment. 

Physiology (including the effects of stimulants and narcotics) 
should also be taught, in order that, through accurate knowledge, a 
motive may be supplied for the continuance of right physical 
habits. The instruction in physiology and that in physical culture 
should be duly co-ordinated. 

Physics should be taught as a means of inducing good habits 
of observing and manipulating material objects, and of measuring 
material forces, and also for its value as a test of aptitudes. 

Music should be taught as another means of expression, and for 
the addition it brings to the pleasures of life. 

A second language (in addition to English) should be taught in 
the elementary-school course, in order that a pupil may early begin 
the acquisition of two literatures instead of merely one ; that he may 
compare -at least two methods of expression of thought ; to insure 
the consequent broadening of his mental horizon ; and that he may 
enrich his vocabulary, quicken his literary observation, and strengthen 
his power of literary analysis. The second language should be 
modern rather than ancient, because m structure, in order of words, 
and in vocabulary, modern languages resemble our own more 
nearly, and so present Ices difficulty to an elementary pupil. 

4. We understand that the phrase " the sequence of topics " is 
used by the committee to mean the sequence of different studies as 
well as the sequence of the subdivisions of a single subject. We 
interpret the phrase "the child's power to apperceive new ideas" to 
mean the child's power to assimilate new knowledge with the help 
of his past acquisitions (both of knowledge and power). We 
assume that the committee employ the phrase " logical development 
of the subject " to mean only a deductive or synthetic exposition of 
the subject, and that the committee believe there is always a neces- 
sary conflict between such a development of the subject and the 
child's power to assimilate the knowledge so presented ; otherwise 
we fail to understand the alternative in the first part of question 4.- 

We believe that the process by which a child assimilates new 
ideas may be either an inductive or a deductive process ; but that 
acquisition by inductive processes is the chief mode of normal 
acquisition in young children, and that acquisition by deductive 
processes, though beginning at an early age, is normally of gradual 
development. While, therefore, the child's power to apperceive new 
ideas is employed both in deductive and inductive acquisition, his 
normal mode of acquisition is mainly an inductive process ; and 
hence the sequence of topics within a given subject should be 
chiefly adapted to those processes. As regards the sequence of 
different subjects, we believe that for the first two or three years 
of school life the only sequence of subjects aimed at should be the 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 1 77 

sequence involved in an orderly presentation of the whole field of 
knowledge. After the first two or three years, however — that is, 
after the subject-matter of instruction begins to diverge definitely 
into several distinct studies — the child's power to apperceive new ideas 
will often make it possible and desirable to present a subject in 
accordance with its logical development. This is possible, because, 
through proper instruction — that is, through adequate and telling 
illustrations and through the correlation of different topics in the 
same subject and of one subject with other subjects — knowledge 
may be assimilated by a deductive process without rote learning 
or diminution of interest or self-activity on the pupil's part ; and 
desirable, because the child should, with increasing maturity, receive 
traming in the acquisition of subjects through their logical develop- 
ment, and also because there is often a considerable saving of time 
in such development of a subject over what would be needed 
for a purely inductive development. Both inductive and deductive 
modes of developing subjects, therefore, seem to us desirable. The 
relative use to be made of each of these processes in every lesson, 
or in successive years, must be determined by the needs of the 
children and the tact and judgment of the teachers. 

Second part of 4. " The evolutionary steps manifested by the 
race " seems to us too vague a phrase to be more than generally 
suggestive in a matter involving such specific details as the sequence 
of subjects or topics. The phrase, of course, suggests that, in many 
respects, ancient races were childlike, and that from the interests 
of these races we may'learn something of the interest of modern 
children ; and that, in a general way, these interests may be made 
serviceable in the choice of topics for the instruction and entertain- 
ment of modern children. But to assert that the sequence of topics 
employed for the education of modern children should be determined 
by the evolutionary steps manifested by the race is to assume a 
knowledge of such a close parallel between these steps and the 
mental and moral development of children as we do not possess. 
To attempt an arrangement of topics with such a vague determining 
principle we believe to be impossible without much forcing. 

5. We answer yes in reply to (a) and {l>). In place of (<r) we prefer 
the following statement : 

To establish as many natural associations as possible between the 
pupil's acquisitions, so that the habit of forming associations may be 
developed. This is only another way of saying that close correla- 
tion may help the pupil to form the habit of seeking and holding 
relations between all his experiences. The significance of all 
i^cquisitions lies in their relations. This habit tends, therefore, to 
make a pupil not merely a learner, but ready in investigation and 
application ; and especially during the later years of the grammar- 
school period and all of the high-school period this habit tends to help 
in developing dominant groups of ideas. These dominant groups 
of ideas involve the growth of permanent interests and incentives 
which may lead the pupil to mental and moral stability. Moreover, 
such dominant groups of ideas often enable him to decide intelligently 
upon the probable forms of activity to which he is best adapted. 



1/8 APPENDIX. 

This statement is intended to indicate the way in which correla- 
tion tends to develop character. 

6. In the first two or three years of school life all subjects should 
be pursued in close correlation. In the later years of the course 
every subject should be correlated to all others so far as they are 
naturally related. Certain subjects have natural relations through- 
out the entire course, and may be grouped for correlation 
throughout. 

7. There are certainly two great groups ; viz., nature studies and 
history and literature studies. Geography is a connecting link 
between these two groups, and, to a certain extent, binds them 
together. 

8. This question has been partially answered under 6. Correla- 
tion of the results of work in all the groups we regard as neither 
satisfactorily possible nor desirable. Complete correlation in a fair 
sense, that is, in the sense of binding all subjects together through 
the medium of some selected central subject, belongs to the earliest 
grades. Specialization limits correlation. Less stress will be 
placed on lateral relations in proportion as greater stress is placed 
upon the relations that are consecutive. The best correlation is 
that which thinks more of the interest aroused and the resultant 
moral tone than of the union of subjects. True co-ordination is 
more subjective than objective. It is quality of mental effort rather 
than quantity. 

9. Recitation periods should be very short ; a few minutes only 
in the lowest classes. They may be increased as the children grow 
older. Thirty minutes ought not, in general, to be exceeded in the 
upper grades of a grammar school, although some subjects may 
receive forty-five minutes or even an hour. 

10. They should all (algebra and geometry excepted, unless by 
geometry, for instance, is meant the recognition, drawing, and men- 
suration of simple shapes) be begun in the lowest class and con- 
tinued through the course. Naturally, the simpler facts of the 
sciences are meant, and nothing like formal study of botany, gram- 
mar, etc., in the younger classes. (See report of Committee of 
Ten, except that biography and mythology should be introduced 
earlier.) 

11. Before an answer can be given to No. 11, such questions as 
these need to be considered : 

Ought not a little uncorrelated work (or work whose correlations 
are between principles last studied and those coming next in the 
logical development of the subject) to be done each day before any 
lateral excursions are made ? For instance, ought not there to be 
specific number, drawing, color, and word lessons, with only asso- 
ciation enough to develop them intelligently, before correlation in 
the larger sense is attempted with the products of such lessons ? 
This seems to us a necessity. If so, there should be set times for 
such comparatively isolated lines of work and set times for the 
group work. 

12 and 13. The subjects of an elementary course belong to all the 
years of it, as described above. The only question, then, is the 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 1 79 

division of the hours of the day or of the week. This is a matter 
that can only be determined by intelligent and somewhat extended 
experimentation. The changing of centers for correlation from 
time to time is involved. 

The work of the elementary schools may, in accordance with 
what has already been said, be grouped under the following general 
heads : 

(i) Language and literature. 

(2) Science, biological and physical. 

(3) Mathematics — geometry, arithmetic, and algebra. 

(4) History. 

(5) Art — music, drawing, modelling, painting, manual training. 

(6) Physical exercises and play. 

Play is included with physical exercises, as special attention 
should be given to determining the kinds of play best suited to 
physical and moral development. Most of the time given to 
recesses, as at present conducted, is, to say the least, wasted. 

Play should and can be made as useful in the physical and 
moral training as gymnastics, and at the same time be freed from 
the artificial restraints that tend to diminish spontaneity. 

For purposes of experimentation, the following time divisions are 
suggested, on a basis of twenty-five hours a week : 

FIRST AND SECOND YEARS IN SCHOOL. 

(i) Language, ten hours per week, including one hour for music. 
Here music counts as language, but no less as art. 

(2) Mathematics, four hours per week. Details omitted. 

(3) Science, three and a half hours per week. Details omitted. 

(4) Form, three hours per week. This part of art work includes 
drawing and modeling, correlated with 2. 

(5) Physical exercises and play, four and a half hours per week. 

YEARS, THREE TO EIGHT INCLUSIVE. ' 

(6) Language, eight hours : English, seven hours for first three 
years, three hours for last three years. Foreign, four hours for last 
three years of the course. Music, one hour per week. 

(7) Science, six hours per week : Biology (botany, zoology, 
simple physiology and hygiene), physics, geography, and chemistry. 

(8) History, two hours per week for six years. 

■ (9) Mathematics, four hours : Arithmetic, first four years, three 
hours per week. Geometry, beginning with the seventh year, one 
year two hours per week, and one year one hour per week ; corre- 
lated with arithmetic, drawing, nature study, and manual training. 
Algebra, beginning with the seventh year, one year one hour per 
week, and one year two hours per week ; close correlation with 
arithmetic. 

(10) Art — manual training and drawing, two hours a week for six 
years. 

(11) Physical exercises and play, two hours a week for six years. 



l80 APPENDIX. 

14, No. 

15. Yes. To answer this question in full would require model 
lessons covering all phases of school work throughout the entire 
course. 

J 6. In our opinion, the introduction of specialization should be 
determined by the following considerations : 

(i) By the grade of the class. In the first years of school, the 
instruction consists of a general introduction to the field of knowl- 
edge, and the different subjects are naturally brought by the teacher 
into close relation with one another. Not until the fourth or fifth 
year of the pupil's school life do the various branches of study 
diverge into distinct channels. Specialization should not be 
attempted before this time. 

{2) By the nature of the studies. Some branches, such as Eng- 
lish, history, and geography, can easily be connected, and can be 
well taught by any intelligent and capable person of good general 
education. Others, such as chemistry, physics, and foreign lan- 
guages, require, if the best results are to be obtained, the services 
of a specialist. When the latter subjects are introduced, specializa- 
tion should begin. 

(3) By the character of the school. If discipline is hard to main- 
tain, or if the teachers have not been thoroughly trained in any 
particular branches (and are not willing and competent to acquire 
such training), the conditicms are unfavorable to specialization. 

17. The promotion of pupils should depend on their fitness to 
pursue the studies of the higher grade ; it should not be influenced 
by their age, the clamor of their parents, nor the insufficient accom- 
modations of schoolhouses. The scholars' proficiency should, as a 
rule, be determined by their daily work rather than by special 
examinations. The question of promotion and graduation should 
never be left to school boards elected by popular suffrage ; the gen- 
eral principles should be established by the superintendent, and the 
individual cases should be decided by the principal in consultation 
with his teachers. 

R. H. Jesse, President of the University of the State of 

Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 

On the FIRST question my own views are most pronounced. I ' 
tliink the elementary course should be six years, and the secondary 
course four, making a total of ten years. We are now taking 
twelve years to do what can be done in ten. The dullest may get 
through in twelve years, the brightest may get through in nine. 
But I think that students of average ability and fair industry, with 
better teaching, and especially with better programmes, can do in ten 
years what they now are doing in twelve. My own experience is 
based upon New Orleans and rural Missouri, that is to say, all of 
Missouri that does not reside in cities of ten thousand and more. 
My experience, based as I have said, is that two years are lost 
in the eight-years' district-school course. The children take eight 
years to do what might be done in six. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. l8l 

As to the THIRD question, I do not think that Latin or a modern 
language should be taught in the elementary-school course, if it be 
reduced to six years. If the course is to stay eight years long, I am 
in favor of enriching the last two years to such an extent as to make 
them practically high-school work. 

But 1 am sure you would not have sent me the paper if you had 
thought it was to draw from me in this hot weather a long disquisi- 
tion. I will stop, but first I must make in the briefest style three 
remarks. 

First, Ethical culture should, in my opinion, receive more em- 
phasis than it now does in elementary schools. 

Second, Too much is included in the four-years' course of 
colleges — I mean our best colleges. Ihe bachelors' degrees should 
mean rather less than they now do. There should be more grad- 
uate work, and it should begin a little earlier. 

If I had my time to go over again, I would vote to put more 
science in the classical course proposed by the Committee of Ten — 
in fact, I would put science in every year. To get the necessary 
time, I would omit something — painful as it would be to do so — 
included in the present course. 

I am delighted to see these seventeen questions proposed to the 
Committee of Fifteen, and I trust that the committee may be guided 
into all wisdom. The reformation of the elementary schools is even 
more important, in my opinion, than that of the secondary schools. 



L. H. Jones, Superintendent of Schools, Cleveland, O. 

WHAT CORRELATION OF STUDIES MEANS. 

It implies such use of studies together as to secure an advantage 
not to be had from separate consecutive study of the same subjects. 

What are some of the advantages that may thus be obtained ? 

(i) An unrelated fact cannot exist. To know it as its qualities 
alone, without knowing its relations, if this were possible, would be 
to know very little indeed about it. Its most immediately impor- 
tant attributes are often those of relation. After the fact has been 
known in its essential qualities, the next study is its most important 
relations; /. e., those which it sustains by virtue of its qualities, or 
those humanistic relations it bears. 

Now, it is impossible, frequently, to find the appropriate fact with 
which to relate the one just learned, in its own field, and there 
will never be another time when the tendency of this fact to relate 
itself properly and permanently to this germane fact will be so 
strong in the mind of the learner ; hence the necessity of going 
outside the prescribed limits of a particular subject, and correlating 
the two subjects, in order to establish this important and necessary 
relationship at the most favorable moment. Some other time will 
not do so well. 

The teacher can in a large measure foresee this kindred and 
appropriate relationship ; therefore it is possible to prepare to cor- 



l82 APPENDIX. 

relate subjects. Indeed, some subjects by their very nature suggest 
correlation. 

For instance, literature treats of a class of ideas that are inter- 
nal, difficult to define or describe, but easy to recognize in expe- 
rience when the proper suggestions are made. A poetical study 
of nature—/, c, a study of nature as related to human life — assists in 
suggesting these spiritual ideas, hopes, ideals, etc.; hence the poeti- 
cal view of nature is the natural correlate of literature. 

In the same way the scientific study of nature will be found to be 
the natural correlate of the study of individual life. 

There are numerous other lines of correlation in which effective- 
ness in instruction is secured through correlation of studies. 

(2) Since the ideas are seen more quickly and intensely by the 
relations of likeness and contrast made possible through this cor- 
relation, the memory is made more i)ermanent with less repetition. 

(3) The habit of searching for valuable relations is established, 
broader sympathies in study are developed, and the power of 
rational apperception is greatly increased. 

(4) Non-essentials are effectively eliminated. 

(5) There is a generally liberalizing effect on character — an im- 
pression of general unity of things, even under diverse appearances, 
that is of great value. 

(6) It develops manliness, tolerance, respect for candid opinion, 
and a contempt for pretense, depending on what ideas he now 
possesses which he can bring to bear on the new study. 

1. The elementary course of study should be eight and the second- 
ary four, as now. 

2. This depends upon what is meant by pedagogical value. 
Each subject (or at least each group of subjects) has by its nature 
the capability of producing, through its mastery, a distinctive educa- 
tional effect in the learner. 

The following analysis will make this clear : The effect of learn- 
ing a thing or of taking a course of training, so far as the mind's 
condition is changed by such learning or training, is manifested in 
some of the following respects : 

(i) The spiritual development resulting from spiritual sustenance 
or nutrition, such as is given by social, moral, aesthetic, humanita- 
rian, or religious ideas. 

(2) The spiritual development resulting from exercise of the 
spiritual powers in accordance with laws of spiritual life and growth. 

{3) A changed condition with reference to the possession of ele- 
mentary ideas which may later be used by the mind for combination 
into more valuable or usable ideas. 

(4) A changed condition so that one has more tools in the form of 
ideas that may act afterward as interpreting ideas (or apperceiving 
ideas). 

(5) A new set of ideals — ideals of life, conduct, achievement, etc. 

(6) A new condition as to habits — intellectual, emotional, and 
practical (or volitional). 

Now, it is clear that these subjects, or groups of subjects, differ 
in their adaptations to produce these effects, some possessing a 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 1 83 

higher adaptation to produce one or more of these effects, and 
others possessinjj a special adaptation to produce still different ones. 

To illustrate, penmanship gives a new tool — a conventional means 
of communication between human beings, rather than ideas that 
are spiritually nutritious ; while literature, properly mastered, gives 
ideas and truths so touched with human emotions, and so related 
to human interests, as to be of real value as nutrition for a human 
spirit, and to be of real use in the formation of ideals of living, so 
necessary in the right education of the young 

So history studies the deeds of men in such way as to illumine 
life and living ; while spelling merely makes communication possible 
in a certain way. 

All these subjects may in a way be necessary, but they serve 
distinctly different pedagogical ends. It would take a very close 
analysis to distinguish all these differences ; and even then the 
whole truth would not manifest itself, because these subjects are 
so interrelated that the best effects of two widely differing groups 
require perfection in the learning of both groups. 

Certain slight correlations should be effected among all the 
studies, much closer ones by groups, and most close between cer- 
tain allied subjects in the same group. 

3. Many subjects enumerated in No. 3 should be taught in the 
elementary schools. At least one language other than the mother 
tongue seems desirable for strong pupils. 

4. There should be so much attention to logical sequence of 
topics as the child is able to bear with his particular stage of appcr- 
ceiving power. 

But this should always be controlled by this same power to 
apperceive. This power to appreciate is composed of two elements : 
(i) subjective condition of child, by reason of his development — 
strength, etc. ; (2) objective condition, as to the ideas which he 
possesses, which may become apperceiving ideas for the subjects 
to be studied. 

(i) is somewhat involved, more or less, with the stage of develop- 
ment of the children, and somewhat in the law which controls 
race development ; but (2) is dependent chiefly upon what have 
been the studies pursued, etc. 

5. All are more or less involved. A fuller answer to this is 
found in introduction above. 

6. It is better to correlate by groups. 

14. There should be no difference of treatment not authorized 
by difference of capability or apperceiving power in pupils. 

16. The points of specialization of work by teachers should 
be mainly determined by the point of development of character 
in the pupils to that degree in which they no longer require the 
complete, consistent, concrete example of conduct furnished by the 
one teacher, but can take advantage of the fragmentary sugges- 
tions of character and conduct furnished by many teachers in their 
study and continuous contact, and should be determined only 
slightly by stages in logical development of subjects. 

17. The leading principle on which promotion of pupils from 



1 84 APPENDIX. 

grade to grade should be made is the ability of the pupils to do 
the work of the next grade more advantageously than to continue 
repeating the work of the grade just completed or which is just 
being done. 

This determination should be by the superintendent, who should 
use all the knowledge the teacher in charge possesses, and supple- 
ment this by some appropriate additional test. 

L. R. Klemm, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 

1. A bifurcation might take place in the elementary course after 
the sixth year, so as to afford all who intend to enter a secondary 
school opportunities for beginning the study of foreign languages 
and mathematics. The otfier pupils, and probably the majority, 
could continue their elementary course until it is completed as here- 
tofore. This plan recommends itself for two reasons : (i) It does 
not hold back talented pupils, and (2) it improves secondary edu- 
cation. 

2. Yes, but a detailed answer would lead to the writing of an 
essay, which would be entirely de trop in view of the fact that Dr. 
Harris has discussed the value of these studies in several papers 
before the National Educational Association. I only add here, that 
the first group would be immensely benefited by the introduction of 
a foreign language, for the mother tongue is never learned well 
unless opportunity for comparison with another language is offered. 

3. Yes, all these subjects might be profitably taught if restricted 
to the elements or rudiments. Physical culture is acquired by 
exercise, and a great deal more should be done in this direction, 
both for the purpose of maintaining and promoting health and 
gracefulness of movement. Physics and physiology, as well as 
Latin (or a modern language), should be branches assigned to the 
seventh and eighth years, and taught only to those who intend to 
enter the secondary school. This is, however, not to be interpreted 
as meaning that no allusion to physical phenomena, physiological 
functions, or references to philological comparison in the study of 
the mother tongue, should be excluded from the regular eight-years' 
elementary course. 

4. That the sequence of topics should be 7iaturge!udss, as well as 
culturgewdss, is an axiom which needs no demonstration ; but with 
reference to the evolutionary steps manifested by the race, I should 
say that the chihVs race, or nation, is of supreme importance. The 
term ''human race " is too comprehensive (embracing as it does 
the savages) to consider it. 

5. All three purposes are equally important. 

6. If the studies of each group mentioned under 2 are properly 
correlated, the further correlation of the groups to each other will 
result naturally. Mere allusions, made as chance offers, will suffice. 
It is at this stage, as it is with the student at a university, he will 
instinctively feel, and soon consciously know, the near or remote 
relationship of all knowledge. 

7. Relation might be established in a practical way by borrowing 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 



185 



material from one study to aid another, as, for instance, arithmetic 
from geography, history, and drawing, by reckoning with actual 
facts, and not with abstract numbers only (or with situations in 
which the price of a cow is found to be sixty cents, and that of a beef- 
steak sixty-nine dollars). The same relation may be established 
between arithmetic and geometry through the medium of mensura- 
tion, or between natural history and physiology, or between history 
and language. Any class teacher who is well versed in the subjects 
he teaches will establish relations, where the specialist who teaches 
only one or two branches can see none. 

8. As stated before, this correlation need not necessarily be 
planned, it will naturally result from the teacher's tact and fore- 
thought. 

9. That depends upon the climate, location, and local circum- 
stances. Ordinarily five or six recitation periods at forty to forty- 
five minutes per day, five times a week for forty weeks a year, 
seems ample. In the primary grades the periods may be shorter, 
say thirty minutes each. 

10. In a rudimentary way every branch of study should be treated 
at once at the beginning of the course ; as, for instance, the child 
who learns that eating unripe fruit is dangerous to the health, or 
that the heart beats and pumps blood, is learning physiology. A 
child who gets acquainted with the fact that heat rises, and that it 
is warmer near the ceiling than near the floor, studies physics. But 
the regular study should begin in 



Language (reading, spelling): . .ist year 
Language (grammar and com- 
position). . ..6th year and 4th 

Arithmetic ist 

Geometry 7th 

Algebra 8th 

Geography 3d 

History 7th 

Natural history 4th 



Penmanship 2d year 

Manual training 4th 

Physical exercises ist 

Physics 7th 

Physiology 8th 

Music (singing) ist 

Latin (or modern languages). ..7th 
Drawing 3d 



ir. It is preferable to make the programmes for groups and not 
for single studies ; this enables the teacher to make changes without 
disturbing the course. An elastic programme is needed. 

12. The language group should have one period a day, mathe- 
matics four times a week, geography and history four times a week, 
natural history and science twice a week ; penmanship, drawing, and 
music, as well as manual training, should share the fourth period of 
each day. This leaves the fifth period for physical exercises, and 
special lessons for the new studies of the seventh and eighth 
grades. 

13. An answer to this would necessitate much detail work ; 
much depends upon local conditions, especially upon the prepara- 
tion of the teacher. 

14. Only for the pupils of the seventh and eighth grades who 
intend to enter the secondary school should the methods applied 
and the matter to be learned be different from the simple elemen- 
tary course. 



l86 AI'll'.NDIX. 

15. Nol vcr\ well. A j^ood Icaclicr would not iicc<| il, aiid .1 h.id 
IcH her would iiol proCil l)y il. 

i(). I should l)c jMiidcd l>y cspc! iciicc, wlii( li Iclls nu' tii.il IIh; 
l)il urc.il ion ui.iy Like |il.i('c iirolil.ilily ;i!lcr llic sixlli ycir of IIk; 
cicuiciil.ii V < olll sc. 

ly. 'I'lir IckIicis .111(1 llic |iiiii(i|):d ol llic scluiol li.ivc .ilw.'iys 
apixMi cd to 111!' 1(1 he llic pi(i|i( r persons lo io.idc llic pupils. lUil 
il IS .idvis.ililc lo Ikiv'c the pioiiiolioii delciniiiicd by 

( I ) The ic,i( lici' who //(TV Ihc |»upils. 

( .' ) 'Ihc le.Khd who /\ A' iv7 I hem, 

(,;) Ihc priiK ip.'il as the picsidiiij; jiidj^c. 

In e.iscs ol disa^jri'cnu'iit. (lie assistant superintendent is lo 
(Iccidf. An .ippcil I'lom his (Ie( isioii to the su|)ci inlendeiil is 
adiiiis.sible. 

I'. I\1 . IVi ( • 1\1 1 1 K U \ , / '/ ///r//>a/ of titr h'niiiLliu SJiooL 

i'.un.iio, N. w 

111 regard to {11) under (pieslion 5, I should like lo in.ike a lew 
points as follows : 

(1) A close coirekilion ol sliidics will luniish a iiiotivc in pupils' 
iniiids ioi t.ikin;; up lu'w topi( s. ./ inil ii,i>livt\ instead ol the 
oidinaiv sl.itc ol i/ii/i(l'<'n'/i< <\ JL^ivcs assurance of ;;icalcr lucnlal 
act i\'il \ , l)cl ler .ippci'ccpt ion, cic. 

( .' ) Il will s.i\c miK h liiiic l)\' iiiakiii!; Ioium-n planal ions iinnccc.s- 
saiy ; as, lor mslance, when the reading; introduci-s " I'aul Ucvi'ie's 
l\idc," alter the hisloiy has handled the battle of I .('xin^lon. 

{^\) H\- iiiliii:; Olll irrclcvanl idc.is il Ic.ids to t he omission of lUMi- 
cssentials, loi Ihc 11 1 (lex'.inl noiions ,irc Ihc non-essentials; for 
e \.i in pic, brokcrai'.e, cube root, lirst I luce P'ri-neh and Indian wars, v[c. 

(1) Il I iirnishcs abundant opportunit\' for ///(/(Av/A// reviews, wliieh 
are i)y lar (he best kind of reviews. ()rdinaiil\' llic mind is al no 
tension durin;^ reviews, the i/in/i,)/ \\ auA not the />/</),■ wr///, beinj^;' 
appi'ali'd to but proper coi rel.il ion I uiiiishes occasions eontiniially 
for niakini; itsr of what has .ilre,i(h been learned, thus .uiviiij;" a 
molivr lo the I'/ii/J for reviews. .Also, Ihc old p(unls are usually 
reviewed Irom a somewhat new slandpoini when recalled by other 
studies; thus not onlv the inlcresl,bul also the f/ioroug/tnrss of 
llir l;iioiolt-ii;^(\ is mcre.ised. 

Al.MoN (i. MikWiN, rriiuifdl of Cnminiitir School \'o. '].\., 

KrookKii, N. \' . 

I. II the purpose of clcmciitarv schools is to do the most that 
("an be done for the pupil who does nol j^o to collci;c ihat is, lor 
the vast majority 1 think it beltci- to m.ikc the coiiise, as it is 
now, eii^lll ycai'S and foui \'c.iis; olhciwise the pupil will Icax'c the 
elementary school .il the end of si\ years, and not i-iitcr the his^h 
seliool ;it .dl. 

.'. The sludvot lani'uae,e as ,1 iiu^.nis of expression better pic- 
pares .1 pn|)il to intlucnce others; (he sliubof lan;Mia.i;e for its 



ON coKKi'ii.Ai ION OP SI iinri'is. 187 

CoiiU'iil. ;;iv('S .ibilily in kiiowin;^ llic lli(iii;;lil of oilier minds; llic 
sliuly of Iiin;^n;ij4(: lor itself, its ori;;in, ils inccli.-niics, has lillU; valiKr, 
unless combined with ils slndy for tlioii^lil and expression. When 
lanj^liajj^c is studied loi- the Ihonjdil, il (idlivales Ihe |iid)',nienl , 
because it is never exact exeepl mal liemat i( al lan;;iia,i;e always 
a]iproxiniate. Ihe very words, "lar;';e," "small ;" "near," "far;" 
" many," " few ; " " ^^ood, " " bad "- tell lis this. In ( oiise(|iienee 
of tiiis iiiieeitaiiity tin' mind is ol)li;';ed to jiid;',e upon piobaitiiities, 
liid^iiij; upon probabilities is what we are doiii;; nearly all of the 
lime in practical life. 'I'liis study of the coiileni ol laii;;iiaj;e I 
believe to be (»l the very liij^liest praetieal and peda)^o;.;ie,al value. 

No one doubts the value of lanj^iia^^e as a means of expression. 
Concise and clear exjjression reacts upon the s|)eal<er's mind, or 
rather, ])erliaps, the effort at clear expression brinj^s the thoii>;ht 
into stronj^er relief in order to clear mental vision, which alone 
makes clear expression possible. (Ireat llueiiey does, indeed, fre- 
(|ueiitly (;xist with very lilth; thoiijj;^hl. ; laii^iiaj^c becomes the rattle 
of lumberii);j^ emptiness, not the hum of conscious thought. 

Mathematics is that form oi laii;Mia;M' \vlii< h deals with measured 
or measurable existences. Verbal laii;4na;;e appro.vimales only ; 
inathematical lanj^aia^ife is exact or mor(' luiarly exact. If mathe- 
niatics has any special value, it lies in this, that it trains the mind to 
exactness, and further, that it );iv<'s the mind the power to abstract 
and C(mipare reflations, or (;l(;meiils, (oninioii to many dinereiit 
lhinj(s. Us duty is to measure; r(;lalioiis. In v<ilal laiij4ua).^e we 
say, A is heavier than />' ,• in mathemalical lanj-jiajM' we say. If A is 
I in weif^ht, Ji is s 'n •'"■ ■"inie attribute. 

Tliat lan^aiaj,fc is in(lis|)eiisable to thouj^ht, s|)(;al<iii;( j^-cnerally, 
we must believe; yet much of the best Ihinkinjj; is done without 
lan}j;ua^(;. 'Ihe inventor thinks in terms of the j)ails of his \\\v.\'^\- 
nary machine, and it re(|tiires an expert to put the machine into 
verbal lan;.(uaj4(:. 

'I'his brin^^s out a peda;;ojM(al value as well, I siisp<cl, as a chief 
|)ractical value of lan;Mia)',e. It is a re( ord by which a tliou;.dit 
once in tin; mind is caught and lei r^rded or labrjed for further 
ob.servatioii when the mind has leisure, I am of the opinion that 
but for the discovery or invention of lan;'iia;M- tli<: human race 
could never have einer)',ed from l)rut(!hood. 

(i('()i.!;rapliy answ(;rs that natural or inherited demand of tin; mind. 
Where? Its s|)ecial value — peda;.,Mjj.^ical value is that it eiiltivat<:s 
the ima^^inat ion. We know from observation but lillleof the world. 
We see a lilth;, and by use of the imajjination (oii:,liii( t the rest. 

tlislory leans som(;whal upon ;.^eoi.(ra|)hy ; indeed, history has 
been made possible by j.((;o;.(rapliicaI conditions. It exhibits men 
in the trend of events ; it forces upon the mind important ^^cnerali- 
zations, and habituates it to the rcc(;;.^iiition of law in all human 
affairs. Under ri;iht mental conditKjiis it leads t(; the hij^diest K<-"- 
eralizations. 'Wm often in elementary scIkkjIs it is a mere |)at(:h- 
work of events. 

Natural scirttrrs, as studied in elementary schools, do very little 
pcdagogically for the iiiiikI. 



1 88 APPENDIX. 

These studies may or may not cultivate habits of observation. 
Science involves generalizations that belong to a stage of develop- 
ment later than the primary schools. Minute and prolonged ob- 
servation, unless accompanied by high powers of generalization, 
tends to narrow the mind. Wide generalizations are usually sug- 
gested by a few facts ; a theory is formed, then comes verification of 
the theory by a multitude of observations. This is the work of 
well-developed minds. The facts of natural science, like other 
facts, are of more or less value to children. I apprehend that their 
pedagogical value to children does not differ widely from the value 
of many other facts common to every-day life. 

JDraicn/ig creates habits of close attention and care. Its general 
pedagogical effect upon the mind is good. Its value in enabling 
children to see things as they are is, I think, much overestimated. 
Drawing is the representation of appearances, not of things as they 
are. It is the work of time to make a child ignore the real form 
and draw the appearance as projected on a plane surface. I can 
conceive that in many cases drawing may retard, rather than aid, 
real investigation. VVe record things by drawing, not discover 
them. As a record and as a form of language, drawing is of the 
very highest utility. In accuracy of expression, drawing is also 
superior to verbal language. 

3. With one or two exceptions, in a six-year course, I say em- 
phatically //o. In an eight-year course no language but English, 
but English more thoroughly. 

Educators seem to deny, by their acts, that the school is for a 
special purpose. They assume that, whatever the child is to be, he 
is to be made in school. They ignore the Church, the home, and 
that all-important education that comes from the child's association 
among his fellows, and his experience in the outside world. I 
believe it most fortunate for humanity that there are phases of 
education that the schools cannot control. 

I might say, too, that the school tends to prevent a spontaneous 
activity. This is a necessity. The school is directed activity. 
Yet we are not to forget that, as nearly as possible, we are to secure 
directed spontaneity. At best, this can be but imperfectly done. 
There are the studies blocked out, and there is the time. Each one 
of fifty in a class must get practically the same quantity, the same 
quality, and in the same time. A future examination demands a 
memoriter drill, which leaves little time for mental activity in other 
directions. This memoriter drill tends to repress s]xmtaneity. In- 
cidents may. to some small degree, excite spontaneous activity. 
Besides, it is the very nature and purpose of a school to direct 
activity. The problem is to direct spontaneous activity. This 
problem has not yet been solved. Incidental instruction or learn- 
ing cannot take the place of specific instruction. If it could, schools 
would be unnecessary. 

Therefore, among all the things it is well for a child to know, we 
must select a few, the most important. To place too much in a 
course of study is like trying to train the muscles of a ten-year-old 
boy to lift as much as a man — ^just as stupid, just as impossible. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. 189 

4. Undoubtedly by the child's power to apperceive new ideas, 
which, I take it, means his power to understand things. The child 
must be approached on the side of his experience. One child 
knows mountains and plains ; another, rivers and lakes ; a third, 
cities and towns. 

No child in school can receive the new unless there is in his mind 
a structure of knowledge to which he can attach it — into which he 
can build his new ideas, a category under which the new will fall. 
This structure, or this category, is more or less modified by the 
new, while the new is labeled as this or that by the structure into 
wiiich it is built, or the category under which it falls. It is probable 
that every mind sees a new subject from a standpoint a little differ- 
ent from that of every other mind. This comes from the fact that 
no two minds have just the same experience. It also suggests the 
mherent difficulty to be met in our schools. We are obliged to 
start a thousand children in just the same way, regardless of their 
differing experiences. 

I should not consider for one moment "the evolutionary steps 
manifested by the race " — by any race. 

Man may have existed a million years, more or less. What we 
know of the race, at the most, is the history of a few thousand 
years — too short a period to determine man's character during the 
process of evolution. In truth, what we really know of the evolu- 
tion of prehistoric man is practically zero. What some pretend to 
know is really a result of reasoning backward, assuming as a 
premise the very point to be proved, and this is the way it is done : 
The child is developed thus before our eyes, therefore the race 
must have been developed thus a hundred thousand years ago. It 
is assumed that the individual development is a type of race de- 
velopment ; then we reason backward to determine how the race was 
developed — a very unsatisfactory way of reasoning. But, even ad- 
mitting the assumption, the whole matter is too vague and too in- 
volved to make such possible process of evolution a practical guide. 
If the every-day observation of the processes of education, and the 
.study of the child every day with us, do not help us to a knowledge 
of educational principles, I think it will be quite in vain to seek 
those principles in the study of prehistoric man. It is true, we 
know there were cave-dwellers somewhere in the past, who with 
clubs fought wild beasts, broke their bones, and sucked out the 
marrow ; we also know there are now savages that take scalps, 
hunt heads, roast and eat their enemies, and live in caves or under 
bent trees, li we are to follow the development of the race, these 
conditions are very suggestive. I am fully of the opinion that we 
had better study for the principles of education among things 
around us, instead of trying to find them in the I'renton gravels, or 
among the cave-dwellers, or lake-dwellers of southern Europe. 

As to the studies that should be taught in school, I am unalterably 
fixed in the opinion that those studies should be placed before the 
child that will be of most value to him in a later probable environ- 
ment. Such studies will give him the best discipline, for they will 
habituate him, physically, mentally, and morally, to that line of 



190 APPENDIX. 

activity which meets the demands, the necessities, of his coming 
life. 

5. I should in a measure say no to (a), (If), and (c). There must 
be some duphcation, just as there must be duphcation in spHcing a 
rope. Indeed, apperception is Uttle else than a spHcing, a correla- 
tion, an interaction, a unifying of the old and the new. I think the 
point is deeper than correlation, it is really a question of the unifica- 
tion of knowledge. It is finding some common characteristics of 
knowledge, so that all knowing may be made one. Correlation is 
the process toward unification, a process seldom adopted by de- 
veloped minds, probably the highest process of which the intellect 
is capable. By this correlation and perception of common properties 
or factors have been made all, or nearly all, the discoveries that 
have created science and extended the bounds of knowledge. But 
it is a late process, and should be used with great care in elemen- 
tary schools. I do not see how correlation will eliminate non- 
essentials. 

II. Time should be assigned for each subject, this beyond any 
shadow of doubt. The contrary opinion has been in part responsible 
for overloading our courses of study for elementary schools. It has 
seemed to be assumed that by using the term " mathematics " to 
include arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, the study of these sub- 
jects has been simplified — a most fallacious assumption. I wish to 
express the opinion with more force than I can express it, that every 
subject and every material pomt in every subject taught must at 
some time be made a specialty in elementary schools. * No correla- 
tion can take the place of special work. It appears to me a mad 
fallacy that the implements of learning, reading, penmanship, draw- 
ing, in short, expression, are mere incident, to be learned inciden- 
tally in the study of nature. I concede that, having gained a fair 
knowledge of the implements, there comes a large increase of skill 
in their use. Must a man never learn to load a gun until he sees 
the game ? or shall he never study an engine until he is to drive an 
express train ? 

Besides, the implements of knowledge are as real, as much 
subjects of thought, as nature itself ; indeed, in any wide view the 
implements of knowledge are a part of nature, as man is a part of 
nature. Words, numbers, pictures, actions, are as real things as trees, 
flowers, or rocks ; and as such they are subjects of special study. 
To my mind, the very purpose, end, and aim of the school is to do 
special work in preparation of the individual for probable condi- 
tions he is to meet in future life ; hence education in school, 
especially in an elementary school, must deal largely with the tools 
of knowledge, as well as with the knowledge to gain which these 
tools are used. Therefore, I conclude, there is no gain in calling 
geography, botany, zoology, mineralogy, physics, and physiology 
" nature studies " or " elementary science," or in correlating them 
as such ; the mind will not be so cheated into knowledge. I must 
believe that mere theorists, men who have never tried their own 
theories, who have quite false views of the purpose of a school, are 
the men who have instigated this most mischievous folly. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. I9I 

13. This means the basis of a course of study. Whatever we 
may determine will be a matter of opinion, and will be changed 
with changing conditions. The probability is that no one really 
knows what are the topics that it would be best to introduce into 
our schools. I may say, give time to do well what is undertaken. 
Take those topics that will be of use to the pupil in later life. 
Never study anything for its disciplinary effects only. Discipline, 
like character, is lost by seeking. Study thoroughly what will be 
most useful, and that study will inevitably give the best discipline. 

14. I think it Vise to make some difference, especially in the 
studies of those who expect to take a course in college or in some 
technical school. Some of the more intricate facts of elementary 
studies may be omitted. These problems of the elementary school 
will be mastered with little time and effort in the high school. 
With such pupils a saving of time might be made by waiting until 
the mind has grown. With many subjects special effort must be 
made, for practical reasons, to impress upon the minds of children 
who leave school early what they would easily grasp if we could 
wait for them. 

17. I know no other principle than that the work of the grade 
shall be fairly completed. There may be some exceptions to a rule 
based upon this principle. It may happen from some peculiarity 
that the child fails in one study ; in this case he should not be 
detained, but sent forward to get what he can. It sometimes hap- 
pens that a promotion will awaken in a lazy or discouraged child 
renewed activity ; then promotion should be tried. Sometimes 
promotion acts like a change of diet, creating a new appetite for 
work or knowledge ; then' try it. Capable children should have the 
opportunity of doing their work in less time and be promoted 
accordingly. 

In clear cases, which should include sixty or seventy per cent, of 
the class, the teacher should make the determination. Where there 
is doubt, an oral or written examination by the principal, together 
v^ith the judgment of the teacher, should determine. 

William A. Mowry, Hyde Park, Mass. 

I. This question involves some very important considerations, and 
should be answered with care. It is well known that but a small 
percentage of the pupils who finish the grammar-school (or elemen- 
tary) course of study go on to the high-school (or secondary) 
course. If the elementary course nominally ended two years earlier, 
it is apparently certain that a large number of those who now 
manage to complete the eight or nine years' course would end their 
school-days with the completion of the elementary course at the end 
of the six years, thereby losing two valuable years of important 
school work. Such a result would prove inevitably a serious loss to 
the country. 

But it is claimed that much valuable time may be gained by 
beginning the high school (or secondary) work earlier. There are 
two sides to this question. If this secondary work is introduced 



192 APPENDIX. 

too early, it must be with great loss of thoroughness and accuracy in 
the elementary studies, which are quite as important as the studies 
thus introduced. If, on the other hand, it is shown to be desirable, 
as doubtless it may be, to introduce elementary algebra, geometry, 
and more nature study in the later years of the elementary course, 
it surely is not necessary to transfer the pupils from the ordinary 
routine of grammar-school work to the different conditions of the 
high school in order to accomplish this simple purpose. These 
studies can easily be correlated with arithmetic and nature study 
already in the elementary curriculum, while the groundwork in the 
entire course of elementary studies is being done with that thorough- 
ness and care which are so important to prepare the youthful minds 
for closer study and more self-reliant work in the higher grade. 

Another point presents itself just here. The question assumes 
that the "elementary " course is " at present " eight years. This is 
true in some parts of the country. In other sections, where the 
schools are equally good and results attained equally satisfactory, 
the course is 7tine years. 

I apprehend that the difference is mainly this : Where the 
course is laid down for «///^ years, many pupils will be promoted 
more rapidly, and so will complete the course in eight, seven, six, 
and possibly, in rare instances, in five years. On the other hand, 
where the course is laid down for eight years, some, perhaps many, 
dull pupils will be unable to keep pace, and hence, not being " pro- 
moted," will drop back and take nine years. For myself, judging 
from a large experience and a wide observation at the East and at 
the West, I incline to the nine-years' course rather than the eight- 
years'. But it should be the constant aim of the teachers to push 
the bright ones along faster. It is better to promote quick pupils 
faster than is laid down, than to drop back the dull ones for a 
longer course. 

By reference to the paper by Dr. Huling, of Cambridge, it will be 
seen that he prefers nine years for the elementary and four for the 
secondary course. 

Dr. Frank A. Hill, secretarj^ of the Massachusetts Board of 
Education, writes me : "I incline to an elementary course of nine 
years. While theoretically there should be no break between the 
grammar and the high, still, under Massachusetts conditions, there 
is such a break; that is, large numbers of pupils incline to close 
their public-school course at the end of the grammar-school course, 
and this is a pretty strong argument for keeping that course a pro- 
longed one, as at present. I believe it feasible to shorten this 
course for the brighter pupils who wish to enter the high school 
earlier, as is done in the city of Cambridge. 1 believe, further, that 
it is possible, through the so-called 'enrichment' of the grammar- 
school course, to make the secondary course dip down into the 
grammar school in such a way as practically to extend its length." 

2. Doubtless each of these studies has a distinct pedagogical 
value. Much may be said to show how each of them operates to 
unfold and develop the child's mind, but it is evidently too early 
yet in our study of child-mind to weigh and measure with accuracy 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. I93 

these several branches, and draw the conclusion that one gives two 
pounds of discipline while another gives but one pound, or that one 
furnishes an expansive power of two meters, while the influence of 
the others is only to the extent of one meter. 

Just here, however, as bearing on this question rather than any of 
the others, I beg to introduce some valuable suggestions from one 
of the most careful, reliable, and successful educators of New Eng- 
land. He says : 

" It seems to me there are six lines of work that grow out of the 
child's twofold environment of nature and man. Each line has its 
own logical development from natural approaches. These six are 
in many cases closely related at certain points, and that relation 
should be most plainly shown. 

"(i) Physical development. 

"(2) Mathematical exactness — numbers. 

" (3) Scientific phenomena — science. 

" (4) Geography. 

" (5) History. 

" (6) Literature. 

" I cannot see how any one of these can be so absorbed in the 
others as to disappear from the programme. Each has its own line 
of development. They touch each other at a great many points, 
and illumme each other at those points. 

"Aside from these is the whole matter of expression, which may be 
taught by specific drill along with each line above, as the means of 
expression peculiar to the given line. It seems wiser to associate 
the drill in expression with each line rather than to have an isolated 
drill out of connection. We find most of our failures in expression due 
to this isolation and consequent lack of appreciation at the right time. 

" It is not necessary that each line come in the programme each 
day, but it will give the teacher time enough on each line to consider 
it thoroughly, to show its relation to the other allied lines, and to 
drill on the different modes of expression. This is especially true 
in the grammar grades. In this the reading, writing, spelling, lan- 
guage, drawing, etc., will come in their connection, and receive much 
more drill than they can get otherwise. If from time to time special 
exercises in any form are needed, they can be taken more under- 
standingly. 

" There are two correlations required — one of the ' content ' sub- 
jects — e. g., relation of geography to history, not trying to teach one 
from the other which is abnormal ; the other of the expression to 
the subject to be expressed — e. g , spelling to geography, to his- 
tory, to literature, etc., a language exercise to history, etc., drawing 
to science, etc. 

"The disconnected teaching of the ' content ' subjects, and espe- 
cially the separation of the expression and content subjects, must 
be overcome by some arrangement whereby the teacher is to have 
fime to do this correlating." 

3. Manual training — at least so far as sloyd, sewing, and cook- 
ing — should be taught in the upper grades only of the eight, or nine 
years in the elementary school curriculum. Physics, to some extent, 



194 APPENDIX. 

should be taught, especially in the higher grades. Music should 
find a place in all the grades, for reasons too well known to be 
repeated here. Physiology (including the effects of stimulants and 
narcotics) should be taught in all grades. This subject, too, has 
been so fully discussed as to need no argument here. Moreover, it 
is by law made mandatory in nearly all the States. Latin or a 
modern language may be taught to an elective class in the higher 
grades of the grammar-school course. This would be in the inter- 
est of those who propose to go on to the high school. 

9. The general tendency is to make the recitation periods too 
long in all grades of elementary schools. In one of the best gram- 
mar schools in Boston, I was surprised lately to find, in grades from 
six to nine, periods for a single recitation from fifty minutes to 
an hour and a quarter. 

In my judgment — and this opinion is ratified by some of the best 
educational minds in the country — in the primary grades the atten- 
tion of the children should not be held to one subject for more than 
twenty minutes, and in the grammar grades for not more than from 
thirty to forty minutes, the latter time applying only to pupils in 
the eighth and ninth grades. 

17. Promotion should not be determined by special examinations 
or by a series of examinations. The important question to be 
asked is — not is he an excellent scholar, but is he qualified to 
appreciate and profit by the studies of the next grade higher. The 
main point to be decided is what the best interests of this individual 
pupil demand. Can he pursue the studies of the next grade to 
advantage ? If so, he should be advanced. This should be deter- 
mined primarily by the opinion of the individual teacher, subject 
to revision by the principal, and the approval of the supervisor. 

Colonel Francis W. Parker, Principal of the 

Cook Cotinty Normal School, Englewood, 111. 

1. To my mind, it makes no difference in regard to the division 
in time, whether there should be eight years and four years, or six 
and six years. The work should be organically related from the 
kindergarten, including secondary education. In other words, 
there should be no break in the work ; a pupil should go from the 
eighth grade to the high school, and continue that work which he 
has already begun. 

2. In a general answer, I should say that no subject in itself has 
a distinct pedagogical value. The value of any subject is in rela- 
tion to all other subjects. 

3. This seems to be a very much mixed-up question. I should 
certainly have manual training in all grades of school, from the 
kindergarten to the university. I should also have physical culture 
and music. Science should be taught from the first grade on 
through all grades. I am not prepared to say whether Latin 
should be taught in the grammar grades or not. At present, I do 
not think it advisable to introduce Latin until the work in our 
schools is more pedagogical than now. 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. I95 

4. Sequence of topics should always be adapted to the powers of 
the child. The development of the child should follow the gen- 
eral development of the race, minus obstructions. I do not under- 
stand the last question in No. 4. 

5. All education is to develop character, and character is intrin- 
sically ethical. 

6. 7, 8. It is possible to unite and correlate all the studies of the 
elementary school. 

9. The power of attention on the part of a class should deter- 
mine the length of a recitation. 

10. All subjects of study should be introduced into the primary 
grades and continued throughout the eight years. 

11. Cannot answer this question, as experience in the subject of 
concentration is now altogether too limited to make special divisions 
of time. 

12 and 13. Same answer. 

14. All pupils should be educated^ whether they stay in school a 
week or fifteen years. All pupils should have the same subjects. 

15. The best method is not yet known. 

16. There should be no special departmental work in the eight- 
years' course, and very little in the high-school course. 

17. Ability to work. The teacher should determine. 



John T. Prince, Agefit of the State Board of Education, 

Boston, Mass. 

3. A widely extended curriculum seems to me desirable for the 
elementary schools, so as to cultivate a " many-sided interest " and 
to assist in a harmonious development of the mental powers. But 
to avoid superficialness, it is important that a careful selection of 
topics be made (principal types being emphasized) and that a cor- 
relation of topics and subjects be made. This correlation should 
be made in groups arranged and taught according to natural 
relations. An attempt to correlate all subjects leads to a forced 
and unnatural association and consequent loss of mental energy. 

7. The groups of subjects (not counting music, manual training, 
and physical culture) are : 

I. ( I ) Nature study, including the elements of physical geography, 
botany, zoology, mineralogy, physics, and physiology ; (2) mathe- 
matics, including arithmetic, inventional geometry, and the elements 
of algebra. 

II. (i) Descriptive geography; (2) history; (3) civil govern- 
ment. 

III. Language, including drawing, reading, spelling, penmanship, 
grammar, elements of logic and rhetoric, composition, and one 
foreign language. 

Correlation of subjects within each group should be as complete 
as possible, and the correlation of drawing, reading, and composition 
with all other subjects should also be close and continuous. 

Specialization by departmental instruction may be made accord- 



196 APPENDIX. 

ing to the correlated groups, a special teacher being given a group 
of subjects in each of several grades. 

Thus, with teachers trained for their profession, there would be 
in my opinion a wise treatment of three subjects of pedagogy now 
attracting much attention ; viz., 

Extension of the curriculum, departmental instruction, and cor- 
relation of studies. 

J. W. Stearns, Professor of Pedagogy, 

University of VVisconsin, Madison, Wis. 

I. To the schools of large cities the question is unimportant, but 
to smaller places the present division is most advantageous, as it 
permits a difference of management with pupils above fourteen, who 
ought to be separated from those younger in order to permit this. 

3. Manual training for the muscular correlation and support of 
intellectual training in realities ; music and art for emotional refine- 
ment ; physics, because high-school science cannot be mastered as 
it should be without elementary training of this sort. I do not 
believe the mind mature enough to profit by classical training as 
now pursued until high-school age. A modern language by a so- 
called " natural method " might be useful. 

17. The real interests of the individual pupil. These must be 
determined by (i) opinion of teachers, (2) written tests. The tests 
should be prepared by teachers, and revised by superintendent, but 
can be satisfactory only when approved by both. 

S. G. Williams, Professor of Pedagogy, 

Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

[On behalf of a committee consisting of the superintendent 
of the schools of Ithaca, N. Y., the principal of the high 
school, and two teachers in elementary schools.] 

I. With regard to the first question we would recommend that 
the elementary course should at first be seven years and the high 
school five ; but four of us are of the opinion that where any lan- 
guage other than the vernacular is to be undertaken it is desirable 
that it should be begun as early as the twelfth year of age. 

9. The committee as a whole would recommend that the length 
of recitation periods should be fifteen minutes for the fir. t school 
year, twenty minutes for the second, twenty-five minutes for the 
third and fourth years, thirty minutes for the fifth and sixth years, 
and forty minutes for any added years ; for the reason that the con- 
tinuance of active interest in the young requires frequent char.ge 
of impression, whilst as age advances such changes need be less 
frequent. 

Personally, I would say that I observed in German schools that 
the ifistruction periods were of the same length for children of six 
years as for those of fourteen, and that, too, without apparent 



ON CORRELATION OF STUDIES. I97 

flagging of attention. I thought this sustained attention was due 
to the frequent change in the nature of the operations within the 
hour, questioning alternately with oral instruction, with slate and 
blackboard work, with gymnastic movements, and with singing. 
Might it not be profitable so to modify much of the work in ele- 
mentary schools as to have more instruction and less recitation of 
lessons, prepared too often without right ideas how to study ? In 
this way the work of the pupils would be wholly guided and inspired 
by the teacher during all the hours of school, thus making unneces- 
sary the so-called busy work, which too often is mere trifling, habit- 
uating children to saunter. 

II. Time should be assigned only for the groups named in No. 7. 

14. After some comparison of views, the committee unanimously 
agreed that the instruction of all pupils should be the same, what- 
ever their supposed destination. 

16. The question of specialization of teaching in the elementary 
schools was felt to present much difficulty. If the only idea is to 
gain the greatest amount of knowledge in a given time, possibly the 
highly trained specialist would be most effective ; but if the shaping 
of character and the formation of good habits is made the chief 
aim, the steady influence of a high-toned teacher would seem to be 
very important, at least for the very plastic period from six to ten 
years of age. 

17. The committee were unanimously of the opinion that the 
principle on which promotions should be made should be compe- 
tency to do the work of the next higher grade satisfactorily. As to 
the manner in which this competency should be determined, the 
favorite opinion seemed to be that it should be by examinations 
conducted by the teachers into whose grades pupils aspire to enter. 

The chairman of the committee, however, was inclined to favor a 
plan outlined in Circular No. 7, 1 891, of the Bureau of Education. 



APPENDIX III 

OPINIONS SUBMITTED TO THE SUB-COMMITTEE ON THE 
ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS 

The following are the questions in answer to which the 
opinions were written : 

1. Should there be a board of education, or a commissioner 
with an advisory council? 

2. If a commissioner, should he be elected by the people, or 
appointed by the mayor, or selected in some other way? 

3. What should be his powers and duties? 

4. If a board of education, of how many members should it 
consist ? 

5. Should the members be elected, or appointed? From 
the city at large, or to represent districts ? 

6. Should the members be elected in equal numbers from 
the two great political parties, or can any other device be sug- 
gested to eliminate politics from school administration ? 

7. By what authority should the superintendent of schools 
be elected or appointed, and for what term ? 

8. What should be the qualifications of a city superintend- 
ent of schools? 

9. Should the city superintendent owe his appointment 
directly or indirectly to the State educational authorities and 
be responsible to them rather than to the local authorities ? 

10. In whom should be vested the authority to license 
teachers ? To cancel licenses for cause ? 

11. In whom should be vested the power to appoint teach- 
ers? In whom the power to discharge teachers? 

12. Supposing teachers appointed to a school, who should 
have the power to assign them to grades or classes? 

13. Should the principle of competitive examination be 
introduced in determining promotions to positions of greater 
responsibility or emolument? 

198 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. I99 

14. How should the duties of superintendents on the one 
hand and of principals on the other in the supervision of 
methods and of teaching be defined ? 

15. By whom should the course of study be made? 

16. By whom should text-books be selected ? 

17. By whom should promotions be made? 

18. By whom should disputes between parents and the 
teaching force be settled ? 

19. By whom should a compulsory education law be 
enforced ? 



200 APPENDIX. 



C. W. Bardeen, Editor of the " School Bulletin,'' 

Syracuse, N. Y. 

1. I should prefer a board of education. 

2. If a commissioner, he should unquestionably be appointed. 

3. I do not see in what respect the Cleveland plan could be 
improved. 

4. Not to exceed seven. 

5. Most emphatically appointed, and most, most emphatically 
from the city at large. The representative system is pernicious. 

6. There is no board so partisan as a non-partisan board, and it 
has been a failure wherever tried, especially in Albany and Oswego. 
The only way to eliminate politics is to appoint the best men, 
regardless of politics. 

7. The superintendent should be appointed by the board of edu- 
cation, and the appomtment should be permanent, or at least for a 
period of not less than five years. 

8. He should be a teacher of experience, but not of too long 
experience, as that is apt to narrow. He should be a man of broad 
and recognized common sense, a man among men, with nothing of 
the pedagogue about him, but in bearing and attire and manner 
able to meet bankers and lawyers and other prominent men as a 
recognized equal. He should be a man of enthusiasm and earnest- 
ness, seeking a place because he wants to make the schools better, 
and recognizing the office as his great opportunity and life-work. 
He should be a gentleman, able to control without austerity or 
harshness, with genuine native sympathy for both pupils and teach- 
ers. There are many other qualifications, but if they were all enu- 
m.erated his wings would sprout and he would fly. These are the 
most essential. 

9. I question whether the State educational authorities can judge 
of the needs of a locality so well as the local authorities. I should 
prefer appointment of the superintendent by a board of education 
appointed by the mayor. 

10. The authority to license and to appoint teachers should never 
be vested in the same person. The superintendent should have 
one or the other, and I think it is better he should have the appoint- 
ment ; so I see no way to improve upon the uniform system of 
examinations of the State of New York, which should be binding 
upon every city as well as every country district. 

11. Both should be vested absolutely in the superintendent. 

12. The principal, subject to the approval of the superintendent. 

13. Never. A competitive examination has no place in teaching. 
The qualifications of a teacher can never be estimated by an exam- 
ination. Examinations may determine who is unfit to teach, but 
not who is more fit to teach than another, or where one is best fitted 
to teach. 

14. The superintendents should lay down general principles of 
teaching and outlines of methods, and require a certain amount of 
progress in every school. Beyond this, considerable latitude should 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 20I 

be left to the principals, and individuality encouraged, so far as it 
does not interfere with the general plan of education in the city. 

15. The final authority should be vested in the superintendent. 
He will, naturally, be assisted by the principal. 

16. By the superintendent. 

17. By the superintendent, with reference to the board of educa- 
tion only where he is in doubt or desires their moral support. 

19. By the school officers exclusively, without reference to the 
police. It seemed to me that Mr. Seaver's arguments on this point, 
at Richmond, weire unanswerable. 

Earl Barnes, Professor of Education^ 

Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Palo Alto, Cal. 

1. I believe that a commissioner with an advisory council is 
superior to a board of education. Centralized authority leads to 
prompt and definite action, and enables the people to locate bad 
management. 

2. I do not think the commissioner should be elected by the 
people, as this necessarily confines the selection to local candidates. 
Neither should I like him to be appointed by the mayor. I should 
prefer that he be appointed by the advisory council or by the com- 
mon council of the city. 

3. It seems to me his powers and duties should consist in a gen- 
eral oversight of the educational interests of the city, the selection 
of the superintendent of schools, and a general control of the busi- 
ness side of the school department. 

7. The superintendent of schools should be appointed by the 
school commissioner rather than by the mayor. 1 should rather 
have him appointed by a board of education than to have him 
elected. 

8. In the first place, he should be a well man with a good physique 
and a strong personality, capable of easily influencing women and 
children. In the second place, he should be thoroughly versed in 
the best pedagogic thought of his day. Of course there are many 
other things desirable, such as business capacity, general knowledge 
of economic conditions, and so on and so on. 

9. I think the city superintendent should be responsible to the 
local authorities. 

10. The authority to license teachers I should place in the hands 
of a considerable board, not too local nor too general. A State 
board with a uniform examination can hardly meet the require- 
ments of backward and advanced communities within its borders. 
In large cities I would have a special board of examiners, and in 
smaller cities I should trust to the county board examiners. I 
would give the superintendent power to cancel licenses for cause. 

11. I would give the superintendent power to appoint and dis- 
miss teachers. 

12. It seems to me there can be no question that the superin- 
tendent should have the power to assign teachers to their grades 
or classes. 



202 APPENDIX. 

13. A competitive examination on the basis of academic knowl- 
edge does not seem to me a desirable method for determining pro- 
motions. If a competitive examination could be held which would 
cover academic knowledge, professional training, and actual ability 
to do, then I should say it would be a good thing. 

14. The superintendent should have a large supervision over 
methods and over teaching, but he should be generous and liberal 
enough to leave all principals great freedom in working out their 
own problems. It seems to me he ought never to impose a rule of 
method upon his schools. 

15. The course of study should be made by the principals and 
the superintendent, the superintendent having first called the 
teachers into counsel on the matter. 

17. Promotions should be made on the judgment of the grade 
teachers, subject to the veto of the principal. 

18. Disputes between parents and the teaching force should be 
settled by the teacher immediately concerned, with tlie right of 
appeal to the principal, and beyond him to the superintendent. 

Nicholas Murray B\jti.1^k, Professor of Philosophy and 

Education, Columbia College, New York. 

There should be a board of education or school commission 
appointed by the mayor, without confirmation by the common 
council or any other body. This board should not be large. A 
board of ten or twelve members is large enough to administer the 
school system of the city of New York. The members should be 
appointed from the city at large, without any regard to wards or 
electoral districts. They should serve for a considerable term, say 
five years, and not more than two members should go out of ofiice 
in any one year. Under an ideal plan the members of the school 
board should be appointed without regard to their political views, 
but solely because of their fitness for the office ; but, in the present 
state of municipal administration in America, this is impossible. I 
therefore favor limiting the choice of the mayor by a provision to 
the effect that not more than one-half of the members of the board 
shall belong to one and the same political party. 

This board should stand in the same relation to the school system 
that boards of trustees do to colleges and universities ; that is, 
they should be the ultimate source of power, and should represent 
the public policy in relation to school matters. They should make 
all appropriations, audit all bills, and make all of the major appoint- 
ments. Under the latter phrase I include the superintendent, the 
assistant superintendents or supervisors, and the principals of 
schools. 

All action taken by any of these executive officers should have 
the full authority of the board, but this authority should be dele- 
gated by a by-law or rule, and not be called for in every matter of 
detail. 

The city superintendent of schools should be appointed by the 
school board to serve during good behavior and satisfactory incum- 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 203 

bency. Despite the fact that there have been in our experience 
admirable superintendents who came to the position without special 
education and trainmg, I believe that there is a danger here that the 
country cannot afford to run as part of its permanent administrative 
policy. I therefore favor a provision that would limit the selection 
of city superintendents to men who have had either a college educa- 
tion or a previous successful career in teaching and supervision. 
The city superintendent should owe his appointment to the local 
board and act as its executive officer. Indirectly, of course, he 
owes his election to the State, because under our system of govern- 
ment that is the final authority in matters of educational organiza- 
tion and administration. 

A board (corresponding to the faculty of a college or university) 
made up of the superintendent and the assistant superintendents or 
supervisors should license, appoint, cancel licenses for cause, and 
discharge all teachers. The appointments should be made from a 
list prepared after an examination set by this board, and I see no 
objection to making appointments from this list in order of merit as 
determined by that examination. It should, however, be borne in 
mind, that, with the increasing specialization and division of labor 
that is going on in our city school systems, persons of various and 
varied qualifications are needed in the schools. There should, 
therefore, be vested in this board full power to appoint to a given 
post the person that they deem best fitted to fill the post, whether 
or not that person be at the head of the competitive list. After 
teachers have been appointed to a school the principal should have 
full authority to assign them to grades or classes. In case of alleged 
injustice or dissatisfaction, there should be the right of appeal to the 
superintendent. 

Your thirteenth question I have partially answered above. It is 
very necessary, in selecting persons for promotion by competitive 
examination, to bear in mind the well-demonstrated fact that suc- 
cess in one position is not necessarily an assurance of capability to 
fill another and higher position. It is possible, however, by keeping 
careful records of work done, to discover who among the persons 
holding subordinate posts possess the necessary intelligence and 
directive power to fill satisfactorily higher and more responsible 
positions. If this element in the case be kept clearly in mind, then 
I am in favor of competitive examinations for promotion. I com- 
mend to your committee the consideration, with reference to this 
point, of the system devised for the Department of the Interior at 
Washington by the present Commissioner of Education. 

The board above referred to (not the school board) should make 
the course of study and select the text-books that may be used in 
the schools. 

Promotions should be made by the principal of each school. 

Disputes between parents and the teaching force should be settled 
by the superintendent. 

The compulsory education law should be enforced by an officer 
of the school board especially appointed for the purpose, and sub- 
ject to the jurisdiction of the superintendent. 



204 APPENDIX. 

Permit me to add some important recommendations that lie out- 
side of the questions you have submitted to me. 

One of these relates to financial matters. It is easy enough to 
ascertain from the experience of a given community what percent- 
age or proportion of the average assessed value of the property of 
that community is necessary in order to sustain a school system. 
This percentage or proportion having been determined upon, it 
should be placed at the disposal of the school board by law and 
without the intervention of a common council or any other board. 
In this way the resources of the school board will expand naturally 
as the city increases in wealth and population, and many of the dif- 
ficulties that school boards now labor under will be removed. The 
money received from this source should be devoted to what I call 
current expenses. All money needed for permanent account, such 
as the acquisition of land and the erection of school buildings, 
should be raised in addition to the above sum by the issue of bonds. 
The mode in which bonds may be issued is well understood through- 
out the United States, and the practice, while varied in detail, is 
uniform in principle. 

A second suggestion I deem of great importance, and I base it 
upon the success of the French people in securing counsel and 
assistance in the management of the schools from the teaching force 
itself. All teachers who have passed the probationary period, and 
are serving on a permanent appointment, should be ex officio mem- 
bers of a teachers' council, which should meet regularly for the dis- 
cussion of questions relating to text-books, courses of study, methods 
of teaching, and so on. This council should be given the legal 
right to memorialize the board of superintendents or supervisors, 
and should elect a certain number of representatives to sit in that 
board. I need not enlarge on the great advantages that will follow 
from giving the teachers an indirect voice in the matters that 
directly concern them. Such a policy promotes the solidarity of 
the school system, and tends to harmony and order as well as to 
increase the efficiency of the teaching force. 

Still another suggestion is, that in very large cities the care of 
school buildings and the purchase of supplies should devolve upon 
a salaried officer appointed by the school board for that purpose. 
In smaller cities the duties of such an ofificer can easily be devolved 
upon the secretary of the school board. An architect for the plan- 
ning and erection of school buildings will naturally be a third per- 
manent executive officer hi the largest cities, where school build- 
ings are always in process of erection. In smaller cities this will not 
be necessary, and as buildings are needed architects can be specially 
employed to prepare the plans and to supervise the construction. 

J. M. Carlisle, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

Austin, Tex. 

1. There should be both a board of education and a commissioner 
with advisory council. 

2. The commissioner should be elected by the people. 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 20S 

3. His powers and duties should be to preside at meetings of the 
board of education and at meetings of his council, to superintend 
buildings and grounds, to appoint committees of the board of edu- 
cation, to approve or veto the orders, rules, resolutions, and acts of 
the board of education, to make estimates of expenditure, submit 
recommendations to the board of education, and to exercise gen- 
erally the same function in reference to the board of education and 
school matters that the mayor exercises in reference to the city 
council and the interest of the city other than school officers. 

4. The board of education should consist of not less than five 
and not more than fifteen members. 

5. The members should be elected from the city at large. 

6. The State superintendent, county superintendent, trustees of 
county districts, members of city boards of education, should all be 
elected on the same day throughout the State, at a time when no other 
officers, except judicial officers, are elected. 

7. The city superintendent should be elected by the advisory 
council of the commissioner. He should first be elected for a term 
of three years, and to' continue thereafter, during good behavior, 
without re-election. 

8. The superintendent should be a man of unquestioned and 
superior scholarship, extensive professional training, administrative 
ability, approachability, and goffd se^ise. 

9. City superintendent should be required to hold a license from 
the State superintendent. 

10. The city superintendent should appoint the city board of 
examiners. This board should examine teachers and report to the 
superintendent, who should issue licenses. The superintendent 
should be authorized to cancel licenses for cause. 

11. The board of education should elect teachers from a re- 
stricted list prepared by the superintendent. Teachers should be 
dismissed for cause by the board. 

12. The principals should be assigned by the superintendent, or 
elected to specific principalships by the board. The superintendent 
should then assign a sufficient number of teachers to each school, 
and the principal should assign them to their respective grades, 
subject to the approval of the superintendent. 

13. The principle of competitive examinations being essentially 
unsound has no place in school administration. 

14. The duties of superintendent, principals, and teachers, should 
be defined by the board of education. 

15. The course of study should be made by the superintendent, 
subject to the approval of the board of education. 

16. Text-books should be adopted by the board of education. 

17. Promotion should be made by the teacher, subject to the 
approval of the principal and the superintendent. 

18. Disputes between a parent and a teacher should be decided 
in the first place by the teacher. Appeal should lie to the principal 
of the school, and from him to the superintendent, and thence to 
the board of education. 

19. There should be no compulsory education law. 



2o6 APPENDIX. 

O. T. Corson, State Commissioner of Common Schools, 

Columbus, O. 

I. It is my opinion that the schools can be best managed by a 
board of education composed of from three to seven members (de- 
pending upon the size of the city) elected by the people at large. 
1 am fully convinced that this board should have upon it members 
of the two leading political parties, but I do not believe that it is 
best to have an even number on the board, half selected from each 
political party. In such boards the tendency is to divide on politi- 
cal lines and tie upon very important questions relating to the 
management of the schools. The object should be to elect men of 
such breadth of mind and integrity of character that the question 
of politics will not at all enter into the management of the schools. 

7, 8. The superintendent of schools should be elected by this board 
of education for a term not to exceed three years. Such a super- 
intendent should have a combination of scholarship and business 
tact. He should have been, prior to his election, a teacher of sev- 
eral years of experience in the different grades of school work, and 
thus be enabled to act intelligently in his selection of teachers, and 
to enter into hearty sympathy with them in their many difficulties. 

9. He should be appointed as before stated, and be responsible to 
the members of the board of education, and through them to the 
people by whom they are elected. 

10. The authority to license teachers should be vested largely in 
the superintendent of schools ; but, in my judgment, he should not 
have entire control in this matter. This authority can be given to 
him by making him a member of the city board of examiners under 
the present law in this State. This board should both license teach- 
ers and also have the power to cancel licenses for just cause. 

II. The superintendent should be consulted in the appointment of 
teachers, and should, under ordinary circumstances, be permitted to 
make his own selections. The power to discharge should be in the 
hands of the board, the members of which should always be ready 
to act promptly upon satisfactory evidence furnished by the super- 
intendent that a teacher was unable to do good work. 

12. The superintendent should have the power to assign teachers 
to their different grades after they have been selected. 

13. "Whether the principle of competitive examination should be 
introduced in determining promotions to positions of greater re- 
sponsibility or emolument," or not, depends entirely upon what is 
meant by examination. If the examination is one of scholarship 
alone, I should answer no ; if it means the broader examination 
which will determine general ability to assume greater responsibil- 
ity, then I think the principle a correct one. 

14. It is my firm conviction that the principals of the different 
buildings should act in the same capacity as the superintendents of 
our smaller towns and cities. They should thoroughly inspect the 
work of the different grades, give suggestions to teachers, do some 
teaching themselves, and in every way bring up the general stand- 
ing of the schools. It is an admitted fact that some of the best 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 20/ 

schools in the United States are found in some of these small towns 
and cities, in which the schools are under the control of an active, 
enthusiastic superintendent. The city superintendent should then 
have a general supervision of these principals or assistant superin- 
tendents. He should determine very largely who the principals 
should be, hold them to a strict accountability for the success of the 
work in their various buildings, and consult them very freely regard- 
ing the selection of teachers who are to work with them, the promo- 
tion of pupils, etc. 

15. The course of study should be made out under the direction 
of the superintendent. In this work he should freely consult the 
teachers of the various grades regarding the work to be done, and 
should insist that no special ivork should be permitted to interfere 
with the general work of the schools. 

16. Text-books should be selected by a committee composed of 
teachers and members of the board of education. It might be well 
to have two of the best teachers, two of the most intelligent mem- 
bers of the board, with the superintendent of schools as chairman 
of the committee. 

17. Promotions cannot be justly made by any one poiuer. Of 
course, the superintendent should decide doubtful cases after gain- 
ing all the information possible, or, rather, he should direct princi- 
pals how to decide in such cases. Teachers should be freely 
consulted regarding this important work ; not only the teachers 
from whom the pupils are to be promoted, but also the teachers to 
whom they are to be promoted. While pupils should be given 
due credit for the regular daily work of the school, it is my firm 
conviction that at least three written examinations should be held 
each year in all grades from the third to the highest. 

18. As a rule, I believe that disputes between parents and teach- 
ers can be settled satisfactorily without appealing to either princi- 
pals or superintendent. There may be instances, however, when it 
may be necessary for the principal to settle such disputes ; there 
may also be very rare instances in which the superintendent should 
take a hand in the settlement of the difficulty; and there may be 
an occasional case (there should be very few) in which it will be 
necessary for the board of education to act upon the report of 
their committee of discipline, after having carefully investigated the 
whole difficulty. 

19. The compulsory education law should be enforced as pro- 
vided in the Ohio law. One or more truant officers should be 
selected, who should act directly under the supervision of the 
superintendent and principals of the schools. 

Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard University, 

Cambridge, Mass. 

I, 4, 5. The central governing body should be a board of moderate 
size, appointed by the mayor. The number of members should not 
exceed ten. It might be composed of ten members two to be re- 
placed each year, or of seven members one to be replaced each 



208 APPENDIX. 

year, retiring members to be eligible for a second term and no 
more. The members should receive no compensation. In this 
board should reside the ultimate authority over everything connected 
with the schools. It should have authority to appoint such agents, 
officers, and teachers as it might find expedient, and to assign the 
duties and fix the salaries of all persons employed in the school 
system. 

Its principal agents should be a superintendent, a business man- 
ager, and an architect. These officers, and all principals or head 
masters, should be appointed directly by the board. Although all 
appointments, regulations, and programmes within the school system 
should have the authority of the board, the board should be em- 
powered to delegate portions of its authority to its agents at its 
discretion, with or without requiring formal approval by the board 
of its agents' action. 

The pecuniary resources of the board should be of two sorts : 
(i) for annual charges, including repairs and improvements, a fixed 
percentage of the total tax levy for current municipal purposes, 
this percentage to be in the first instance determined by the actual 
average ratio of current school annual expenses to other current 
municipal annual expenses for the five years preceding the date of 
this determination, the percentage thus arrived at to be alterable 
after six months on the proposal of the board, approved by popular 
vote at the next municipal election, a majority of two-thirds being 
required ; (2) for new grounds and buildings, the product of long 
loans to be issued by the municipality on the proposal of the board, 
approved by popular vote at the next municipal election, a majority 
of two-thirds being required. 

The superintendent, the chief officer of the board, should have 
authority to nominate for appointment by the board an adequate 
number of inspectors, and these inspectors should be appointed, 
not with reference to localities or sets of schools, but with reference 
to the departments of instruction in which they are respectively 
expert and which they are therefore competent to supervise ; and 
the board should not be confined in their choice to nominations by 
the superintendent. The number of inspectors should be deter- 
mined by the board with due reference to the size of the system. 
The tenure of the superintendent and inspectors should be during 
good behavior and efficiency. 

The superintendent and inspectors should constitute a body, pre- 
sided over by the superintendent, holding weekly meetings, and 
charged with important functions. The several inspectors should 
make annual reports to the superintendent, and the superintendent 
an annual report to the board ; and all these reports should be 
annually published. 

11. All teachers, except principals or head masters, should be 
selected, promoted, and discharged by the superintendent and m- 
spectors acting as a body, first appointments b^ing as a rule open 
only to persons who have passed general and special examinations 
conducted by the superintendent and inspectors, the records of 
these examinations to be for the use of that body only. Certifi- 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 209 

cates may be given in general terms for use elsewhere. Experienced 
teachers, and graduates of colleges, scientific schools, or univer- 
sities, should be eligible for positions without examination and with 
constructive rank to be determined by the superintendent and 
inspectors. 

After reasonable periods of probation— periods which should 
ordinarily cover at least eight years for persons who enter the ser- 
vice at the lowest grade — the tenure of all teachers should be 
during good behavior and efficiency. 

All the teachers in the system should be ex officio members of 
an association, one of whose functions should be to elect annually 
from their own number members of a representative body, to be 
called the council. The school board should determine from timic 
to time the number of members of the council, and the proportion 
of this number which should be replaced each year. The member- 
ship of the council should be fairly stable, and not so numerous 
as to make intimate and effective discussion difficult. 

All school programmes should be constructed by the super- 
intendent and inspectors with the advice of the council ; but de- 
cisions should be made only after ample opportunity had been 
afforded to the council for discussing and criticising the proposals 
of the superintendent and inspectors. 

16. For those grades in which uniform text-books are necessary, 
the selection of books should be made by the superintendent and 
inspectors with the advice of the council. For those grades, or in 
those subjects, in which various text-books may be used with 
advantage, or for which books of reference are needed, the prin- 
cipals of schools should make the selection. 

17. Promotion of pupils should be determined by principals of 
schools on a general plan made by the superintendent and in- 
spectors with the advice of the council. 

Annual appropriations, reasonably constant in amount, should be 
made by the board for each school for the purchase of books, 
apparatus, and supplies, all such purchases to be made through the 
business manager on the order of the principal of the school. 

I'he business manager, a salaried officer, should buy all sup- 
plies, oversee all the service in school buildings, direct all repairs 
and improvements which can be executed without the aid of an 
architect, and in general be responsible for the condition and the 
care of all grounds, buildings, and other property belonging to the 
system. 

The architect should not be a salaried officer, but should be 
paid for designs, drawings, specifications, and superintendence, by 
commissions, computed in accordance with the customary charges 
in private practice. 

I add a few remarks on the above plan, without attempting any 
elaborate argument in support of it. 

Appointed boards, serving without pay, have proved to be inde- 
pendent, efficient, and trustworthy; as, for example, boards of health, 
trustees of libraries, park commissioners, and hospital trustees. 

14 



2IO APPENDIX. 

The resources of the school board should not depend on votes of 
the city council, and should rise and fall automatically with the 
general expenditure for city purposes. 

The superintendent and inspectors would be a body of experts 
qualified to administSr the school system in all its details. 

The council would be an advisory body through which the opin- 
ions of the teachers about programmes, pupil promotions, books, 
and methods, could be ofificially brought to bear on the super- 
intendent and inspectors. 

Precedents already exist for almost every feature in the plan. 

Charles B. Gilbert, Superintendent of ScJiooh, 

St. Paul, Minn. 

My present judgment is in favor of a board of education of not 
more than five members, elected by the people from the city at 
large .for long terms, say five years, making one election each year. 
Of these five, provision should be made that not more than three 
shall belong to one political party. 

This board should appoint the city superintendent for an indefi- 
nite term, subject to removal for cause, and the law should require 
that the city superintendent be a man of liberal education and pro- 
fessional training or experience. If the State authorities have any- 
thing to say about it, it should be simply to certify to these quahfi- 
cations. 1 have little faith in State educational authorities as a 
whole. The authority to license teachers should rest in the super- 
intendent, with an advisory committee of the board. The authori- 
ties who issue a license should also have the power to cancel it for 
cause. The superintendent should have the power to appoint and 
discharge teachers. I am uncertain whether it would be wise for 
the board to have the power to confirm or not. 

Teachers should be assigned to grades in the school by the prin- 
cipal of the school, after consultation with the superintendent. 

The plan of competitive examination does not seem to me a good 
one. 

The relative duties of superintendent and principal it would be 
impossible to define fully in a short statement. In general, the 
superintendent should determine the general methods of work and 
the principles to be employed, and to the principal of the school 
should be left their development. 

The course of study should be made by the superintendent. 
Text-books should also be selected by him. 

Promotions should be made by principals in consultation with 
their teachers. 

Disputes between pupils and the teaching force should be referred 
to the superintendent. 

The superintendent should also have the supervision of the 
enforcement of the compulsory education law. 

In regard to boards of education, it is my opinion that their 
duties should be broad but not specific. They should have power 
to fix upon a schedule of salaries, and to determine in a general 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 211 

way what funds are required for the running of the schools, and 
how they are to be expended ; what buildings are to be erected ; 
what supplies purchased. They should appoint a superintendent, 
who should have entire control of the educational work of the 
schools. They should appoint another man, or two if necessary, 
who should attend entirely to the business side, such as the pur- 
chase of supplies, erection and care of buildings, appointment and 
supervision of janitors, relieving the board of those duties which 
are burdensome to business men, and which boards always do 
badly. 

1 think with some such plan as this we could have better boards 
than are common, and be free from the peril which I feel rests in 
the absolute power of the commissioner. I am aware that it is a 
prevalent opinion that the members of the board should be appointed 
by the mayor, and not elected by the people, and possibly I am 
wrong in my opinion ; but I certainly have not yet seen an instance 
of the continued successful operation of one-man-power in this 
country — that is, of one man responsible directly to the people — and 
I doubt whether the United States is congenial soil for such a plan. 

Paul H. Hanus, Assistant Professor of the History and 

Art of Teaching, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass, 

I. A board of education. 

2 and 3. Answered in i. 

4. For cities comprising one hundred thousand inhabitants,* or 
fewer, the board of education should consist of five members ; for 
larger cities, the board of education should consist of a somewhat 
larger number, say, seven, nine, or eleven — never more than eleven. 

5. (i) Appointed by the mayor at stated times, as remote as pos- 
sible from the city elections. (2) From the city at large. The 
desirability, when such desirability exists, of having all sections of 
the city represented, would naturally be urged on the mayor ; but 
he ought not to be obliged to select the members of the board from 
localities having fixed boundaries. 

6. Electing or appointing the members of the board of education 
in equal numbers from the "two great political parties" will not 
eliminate politics from school administration. On the contrary, to 
recognize the existence of political parties in connection with the 
appointment of members of the board of education — a matter with 
which politics has absolutely nothing to do — is to affirm a relation 
between them, which afterwards has to be considered. 

There are, fortunately, some cities in which politics does not enter 
into the administration of school affairs. Throughout the country, 
wherever political influence is felt in the administration of school 
affairs, every effort should be made by the superintendent, and all 
worthy citizens whose co-operation he can secure, to cultivate public 
opinion in favor of the complete elimination of political influence 
from school affairs. It should be universally recognized that a 
candidate's political opinions have absolutely nothing to do with his 
qualifications for membership in the board of education. The 



212 APPENDIX. 

question of his politics, so long as he is a man of good character, 
ought never to be raised either for or against any candidate. 

7. By the board of education, at first for a probationary term of 
two years ; then for a longer probationary term, say five years ; 
thereafter (for a term without stated limit) during efficiency and 
good behavior. 

8. He should be a man of character, refinement, scholarship (he 
should have a college education, at least), professional training 
(collegiate or university study of education), and successful experi- 
ence as a teacher or supervising officer, or both. 

9. He should be appointed by, and should be responsible to, the 
local authorities. 

10. (i) In the superintendent. (2) In the superintendent, with 
the right of appeal to the board of education. 

11. (i) The board of education should elect the superintendent 
and a business officer. The business officer should be the business 
agent of the board, the executive head of all its financial or business 
affairs. The superintendent should be free from all administration 
of business affairs in order that he may devote himself to the 
administration of the work of instruction of which he is the executive 
head. The superintendent should appoint all assistant superin- 
tendents, principals, and teachers. (2) In the superintendent, with 
the right of appeal to the board of education. 

12. The principal of the school. 

■ 13. No. Promotions should be determined by proved efificiency ; 
in cases of equal efficiency, by seniority of service. 

14. The assistant superintendents and principals, together with 
the superintendent as leader and presiding officer, should constitute 
a professional advisory council. In this council the superintendent 
should occupy about the same relation to the other members that a 
college or university president bears to the members of a faculty. 
He should have the right to propose measures, and to recommend 
and debate measures proposed by other members of the council. 
He should have the power to enforce any measure favored by a 
majority of the council, and no measure should be adopted without 
his approval. In their own buildings principals should administer 
their schools without interference. The riglit of the superintendent 
to inspect, criticise, and advise the assistant superintendents and 
principals in regard to their teaching or administration, or both, 
should, however, be definitely understood : the superintendent is the 
executive head of the school system in everything that pertains to 
the work of instruction ; the assistant superintendents and principals 
are his subordinate officers. It should never be forgotten, however, 
that the principle of all official relations between the superintendent 
and his subordinates should be co-operc.fion. 

15. By the Advisory Council defined in 4. 

16. By the Advisory Council defined in 4. 

17. By the teachers of the classes and the principals of buildings 
without special examinations for promotion. Such examinations 
should be resorted to only in disputed cases. 

18. All disputes between parents and teachers should be reported 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 213 

by the teachers concerned to the principal, at once, and all minor 
disputes should be adjusted by the teachers and parents directly- 
concerned, with the co-operation of the principal whenever such 
co-operation is desired by either party. If the teachers, parents, and 
principal fail to agree, the co-operation of the superintendent should 
be sought ; and whenever the matter in dispute is important, the 
Superintendent should be fully informed from the start whether hi§ 
co-operation is required or not. If no agreement can be reached 
through the superintendent's co-operation, the dispute should be 
carried by the parties concerned — /. e., parents, teachers, principal, 
and superintendent — to the board of education. 

19. By the local authorities through special officers elected by the 
board of education on the nomination of the superintendent. 



William R. Harper, President of the University of Chicago, 

Chicago, 111. 

1. Commissioner without advisory council would be better; 
more definite policy. But a board is better. 

2. Appointed by mayor. More definite responsibility. 

3. I. Financial. Fixes school budget ; fixes salaries ; audits 
accounts ; gives orders on the treasurer for same. 

II. Educational. Appoints teachers on recommendation of 
superintendent ; promotes teachers on recommendation of superin- 
tendent ; dismisses teachers on recommendation of superintendent ; 
fixes curriculum on recommendation of superintendent ; fixes text- 
books on recommendation of superintendent. 

4. Not less than five nor more than thirteen. 

5. Appointed from city at large. 

6. I do not approve of a bi-partisan board. It is worse than any 
other, so far as the spoils system is concerned. It should consist of 
men of such character that the board will be really ;^(?«-parti.san. I 
do not believe that any machinery will make a school board non- 
partisan. Nothing can do that but such a state of public opinion 
as necessitates the appointment of such men as school commis- 
sioners as will be above partisanship. 

7. By the school commissioner, or by the school board. Term, 
good behavior. 

8. It would be easier to say what they should not be. He should 
be a man (1) of comprehensive education, liberal and professional ; 
(2) of wide and successful experience in instruction and school 
management. 

9. No. 

10. Concurrently in the State and in the city board of education, 
with approval of superintendent. 

11. In the board, with approval of superintendent. 

12. The principal. 

13. Yes, but it should not be the sole criterion. The personal 
equation should decide first who should be admitted to such 
examination. 



214 



APPENDIX. 



14. The superintendent should deal with general questions ; 
principals, with details. 

15. By superintendent and principals, with reservation of veto to 
board in case of added expense. 

16. Same as 15. 

17. By board, on recommendation of superintendent and prin- 
cipal ; or, in care of principal, on recommendation of superin'- 
tendent. 

18. By the superintendent, with right of appeal to board. 

19. By the board. 

F. A. Hill, Secretary of the State Board of Education, 

Boston, Mass. 

1. There should be a board of education, whose functions should 
be as nearly legislative as possible. 

2, 3. See answer to No. i. 

4. The number of members should be small. The term of ser- 
vice should be at least three years. One-third should go out each 
year. 

5. The members should be elected by the people at large. 

6. Political parties ought not to be considered in their election. 
Only the good sense of the public can eliminate politics from school 
administration. 

7. The superintendent should be appointed by the board, to serve 
during efficiency. 

8. He should be liberally educated, have a practical interior 
acquaintance with schools, be tactful, have the qualities of leader- 
ship, etc., etc. 

9. The superintendent should be responsible to the local authori- 
ties. 

10. The superintendent should have the initiative in matters of 
licensing teachers and canceling licenses, the board serving as a 
final court of appeal. 

11. See answer to No. 10. 

12. The head master should have the power of placing teachers 
within his jurisdiction or field of work. 

13. If the idea of a competitive examination includes the whole 
subject of fitness, personal, scholastic, professional, and executive, 
and is not limited to paper results, it is an idea to be favored. The 
best men should go up, and the selection of the best men involves 
the comparison of men. A plan of some kind that shall aid in 
arriving at wise selections is certainly desirable. 

14. The superintendent deals with general policies ; the prin- 
cipal should be free within the limits of general policies and in his 
own field. 

15. 16, 17, and 18. The superintendent and his aids should con- 
trol courses of study, the selection of books, apparatus, etc., pro- 
motions, the settlement of disputes between parents and the 
teaching force, etc. ; that is, the initiative and first decisions should 
come from his office, the board acting in cases where ultimate 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 21 5 

decisions rest with the board by law and serving as a final body of 
appeals and decisions 

19. The compulsory laws for education should be enforced by 
truant or other officers, responsible directly to the superintendent, 
and finally to the board. 

The underlying principle of the foregoing answers is this : 

A board of education should confine itself to legislative func- 
tions, to questions of school accommodations, amounts of money 
needed, salaries, the grander policies of education, etc. Its members 
are presumably not specially qualified, and usually it is physically 
impossible for them, to attend wisely to details of administra- 
tion or to the settlement of purely professional questions. Every- 
thing of an executive nature, and everything that, in administra- 
tion, concerns the wise and successful pedagogical treatment of 
school matters, should be intrusted to the superintendent, who 
should have associates and helps enough to do the work. One 
function of a board is to back up and support a superintendent 
in a vigorous policy. 

In other words, all matters of an educational nature that require 
expert consideration should be relegated to a competent, well-paid 
executive expert, who should have the aid of other competent, well- 
paid experts. Their decisions in the matters intrusted should 
usually be accepted and supported. They may refer questions of 
doubt to the board, and the board should always be viewed as the 
place for appeals and the source of all authority, under the laws. 

These views I hold in a tentative way — not as absolutely final 
ones — for I may not be wise in proposing details of a general policy 
that I firmly believe in ; namely, the policy of centering purely 
educational responsibility in educational experts, so paid, of such 
tenure, and so supported by a wise board behind them, that is con- 
tent with its general control of great policies, and its ultimate con- 
trol, in cases of appeal, in all matters, that experts shall not shrink 
from a fearless policy. 

B. A. Hinsdale, Professor of the Science and the Art of 

Teaching, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Before proceeding to answer the questions, I wish to observe that 
it is difficult or impossible to answer them in absolute and unquali- 
fied terms. What is best for one city or town is not necessarily 
best for another. It is not the American, or rather the Anglo-Saxon, 
way to take the high a priori road, but rather to take causes and 
conditions, particular as well as general, into account. Hence it 
must be understood that I should by no means be bound by the 
following answers in all cases. In other words, the answers will 
relate to what I conceive to be average conditions. 

1. I incline to the commissioner with an advisory council. In 
this way power, and especially responsibility, is focalized, which is a 
very important thing in public-school matters. 

2. 1 incline to the popular election of the commissioner, as being 
more consonant with the spirit of our instruction. 



2l6 APPENDIX. 

3. Ills powers and duties should be executive and administra- 
tive, not IcL^isiative or judicial. 

4. 1 incline neither to a lari^e board nor to a small one. A small 
board creates suspicion and often promotes scheming;. A large 
board tends to become too irresponsible and reckless. What I have 
said abjut boards will apply as well to advisory councils. There is, 
in my mind, even more objection to a large board than to a large 
council, because the board will be charged with executive and 
administrative duties to a much greater extent than the council. 

5. On the whole, 1 incline to appointment, as, for example, by the 
judges of the courts. I see no objection to both city representation 
and district representation. If the members are to be elected, 1 
inclin.^ to city representation. 

6. This would be desirable, but I see nc^ way to bring it abtiut 
except through the operation of i")ublic oj^inion. Such a division 
as is referred to could hardly be secured by means of positive laws. 
If leading men in the two political parties would agree to it, and 
see to it, as was formerly the case in iMinneajiolis, as [)erhaps is yet, 
the end could be accomplished. 

7. If there is to be a commissioner and council, the commissioner 
should nominate and the council confirm. If there is to be a board, 
the board must elect. The term of ohice should be good behavior, 
or if it has a time limit it should be a long one. 

8. If there is a commissioner and council, so that the city super- 
intendent will be relieved of many business matters that sometimes 
fall to him, I think it very desirable that the superintendent's 
strength should lie on the pedagogical side rather than on the 
business side. Still he must be a man of good business and 
administrative sense. His great functions I conceive to be peda- 
g^ogical. 

9. I should answer this question decidedly in the negative. It is 
contrary to our cherished ideas of local self-government, and would, 
in my opinion, promote evil rather than good. I am unable, how- 
ever, to say how the State system operates in \'irginia, where it 
jirevails. 

10. The licensing authority and the canceling authority shoulii 
be the same. 1 think it wotdd be a good plan to put the nomination 
of examiners in the hands of the superintendent, and the confirming 
authority in the hands of the board or council. One great need 
in our schools is larger professional influence in the licensing of 
teachers. 

11. The power of appiMutment and the power of discharging: 
should be the same. I like the Cincinnati and Cleveland plan. If 
this cannot be secured, then the board must elect ; in no case should 
the commissioner, if one, appoint. 

12. The assignment should be made by the superintendent, acting 
in conjunction with his assistants. 

13. Something can be said on the affirmative side of this question. 
However, competitive examinations test only scholarship and think- 
ing ability, and as these are by no means the only elements enter- 
ing into the appointment, the test would not be sufficient. Still I 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 2 1/ 

am inclined to think that competition could be usefully employed to 
a limited dejjree. 

14. An adequate answer to this question would require a maga- 
zine article. 1 can only say that the ultimate source of instruction 
in regard to methods and teaching must be the superintendent. Still 
the principal should have a distinct status. Teachers should have 
some measure of responsibility to the principal, but 1 should 
strongly oppose a system that would preclude the teacher from 
reaching the superintendent, or the superintendent from reaching 
the teacher, save through the principal. The teacher should have 
a double loyalty and a double patriotism, much as the American 
citizen owes loyally to the State and the nation. 

15. Courses of study should be formally made by the board or 
council, but they should be really made by the superintendent, 
assisted by his advisers. 

16. I answer this (juestion in the same terms as the fifteenth. 

17. Promotions should be made by principals, acting in conjunc- 
tion with teachers on the one side, and the superintendent and his 
assistants on the other. 

18. That will depend upon the nature of the dispute. Many 
disputes can be settled directly by bringing the parent and the 
teacher together, but some cannot be so settled. In this second case, 
the settlement should be efTccted, as a rule, by the parent and the 
superintendent, not by the parent and the principal ; still there will 
be cases when the intervention of the principal will conduce to good 
results. 

19. I know of no better way than for the school authorities to 
appoint, under the law, a school police, not using that name, how- 
ever. Information must come, of course, from the superintendent's 
office directly, but ultimately from the teachers. 'J"he truant officer, 
or school policeman, should be in constant close connection with 
the superintendent's office. 

D. L. K\¥,\U A'., Professor of Pedagogy, 

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. 

1. The essential to an efficient organization is one mind capable 
to comprehend the entire system — capable in intellect and admin- 
i-strative ability. To meet the demands of details he should have 
an advisory board. Hence I believe in a commissioner. 

2. He should be appointed in a deliberate manner by some re- 
pponsible authority. When our cities elect mayors in the spirit of 
municipal reform, they will be well fitted to make the ap[)oinlment. 

5. The members should be comprehensive in their intelligence 
and sympathies. In such case there would be no necessity for 
electing by districts. 

6. The selection should be without formal recognition of political 
parties. 

7. The superintendent of schools should be carefully selected. 
This cannot be done by elections or caucuses. 

8. Besides his scholastic preparation, he should have a theoretical 



2l8 APPENDIX. 

preparation well tested by experience. ?Ie should know men, and 
be well able to administer educational affairs in the selection of 
teachers, and in supporting and improving those in the service. 

11. The nomination of teachers should be with the superinten- 
dent, the same to be appointed or confirmed by the board. 

12. Appointment or assignment to grades must be left with the 
superintendent. 

13. Such examinations should be made as will determine fitness. 
Mere scholastic tests are not sufficient. 

15. Courses of study should be made by some one representing 
the wisdom and experience of the entire corps and profession of 
teachers. This means the experience and thought of the educa- 
tional world adapted to the needs of a particular community. The 
city superintendent should be capable of this. 

16. Persons capable of using tools ought to be capable of select- 
ing them. 

1 7. Persons capable of teaching ought to know when their work 
is done, or, in other words, should decide promotions. Of course, 
there must be an equalizing agency, to make up for the defects of 
teachers. 

18. By the superintendent. 

19. By some authority independent of the educational. 



Colonel Francis W. Parker, Principal of the 

Cook County Normal School, Englevvood, 111. 

1. A board of education. 

2. Elected by the people at large at a time when there is no 
other election. 

3. To select a superintendent capable of managing a city school 
system. The board should be able to judge of the ability of the 
superintendent and of his work, and should support him in all that 
he tries to do, so long as they are satisfied that he is equal to the 
work. 

4. Five members. 

5. Elected at large from the city on one ticket. It would be a 
good plan to elect one member each year. 

6. The election of boards of education should be entirely separate 
and apart from party politics. Members should be selected for 
their business ability. By "business ability" I mean men who 
have tlie sound judgment and common sense to select a competent 
manager or superintendent, and to support him while in office. 

7. By the board of education, for a term of not less than five 
years. 

8. A man or woman of excellent education ; not necessarily a 
graduate of a college or university. Should have a thorough profes- 
sional education ; a practical teacher, if possible. If not a teacher, 
should have a comprehension of the science of education, and 
know educative work when he or she sees it. The principal func- 
tion of a superintendent is to select and teach teachers. 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 219 

9. The school affairs of a city should not in any way be managed 
by the State authorities. The common schools should depend upon 
the people who pay the money for their support. 

10. In the superintendent. 

11. Principals should be allowed to nominate teachers from a 
selected list made by the superintendent. A request to discharge 
a teacher on the part of the principal should be final. Either the 
request should be indorsed or the principal discharged. All power 
to appoint and discharge teachers, however, should be vested in the 
superintendent. 

12. The principal of the school. 

13. All promotions of teachers to better salaries and more re- 
sponsible places should be made upon merit alone ; there should be 
no competitive examinations. Merit should be decided by actual 
teaching. 

14. The principals should be the advisory council of the superin- 
tendent ; the superintendent should supervise the principals, and 
the principals should supervise their own schools. A principal 
should be, virtually, supervisor of his own school, and the superin- 
tendent should decide, by examinations and inspections, whether 
he is capable of doing such work. 

15. By the superintendent, with the principals as his advisory 
council ; the principals, in turn, should take and consider the advice 
of their teachers. 

16. By the superintendent, under the advice and counsel of his 
principals. 

17. All promotions should be made by the teacher of a class or 
grade. 

18. By the principal of the school, with an appeal to the super- 
intendent. 

19. By the principal of a school, aided by all his teachers, and sup- 
ported by the superintendent. All truant officers should be under 
the immediate control of the superintendent. 

The whole question of school supervision, as in all other business 
operations, may be summed up in one word, '■'■responsibility." 



Henry R. Pattengill, State Superintendent 

of Public Instruction, Lansing, Mich. 

I. I think I am in favor of a board of education. 

4. This board should not be a large one — say six or eight for a 
large city. 

5. I would have the members elected by the people at large. 

6. I would have the arrangements so made that two should be 
elected each year — one from each of the two principal parties — and 
the person so chosen should be nominated in district caucuses con- 
ducted on the most approved and modern plan ; that at these cau- 
cuses members of any political parties could vote, but that it should 
be understood that the person selected should belong to the Repub- 
lican or Democratic party, or some other party, in accordance with 



220 APPENDIX. 

the situation of the political wheel at that time. That is to say, 
all that vote should vote to nominate some Republican one year, 
and a Democrat the next year ; but when nominated these names 
should be placed upon both the tickets, Republican and Democratic. 
This plan has been tried in Lansing for several years, and works 
very satisfactorily. Politics do not enter into the choice of our 
school board. Ours, however, are chosen by wards. The citizens 
of the ward assemble in caucus and vote for a member of the school 
board to be placed upon the ticket, one party having it one year 
and one the next. Both parties by agreement abide by the deci- 
sions of these caucuses. 

7. The superintendent of schools should be appointed by the 
school board for life or good behavior. 

8. The city superintendent should have a thorough education, 
be a man of excellent business ability, a man of unusual common 
sense, possessed of genial manners, and having the power of inspir- 
ing and encouraging teachers to do good work, 

9. No. 

ID. In a committee from the school board and the city superin- 
tendent, their examination questions and methods of examination 
subject to the approval .of the State superintendent of public 
instruction. The power to cancel licenses should be held by the 
body that grants the license. 

11. The city superintendent should be the power to appoint 
teachers and the power to discharge. 

12. The superintendent, in conference with his principals, should 
be the power to assign teachers to grades or classes. 

13. Yes. 

14. The city superintendent should have the general charge of 
the affairs of the schools, and be seconded in his efforts by the 
principals, who in turn should have charge over the individual 
schools over which they are appointed. Principals should be held 
responsible for the work done in these schools, and should be sub- 
ject to the guidance and direction of the city superintendent. 

15. The course of study should be made by the superintendent 
and principals working conjointly, 

1 5. Text-books should be selected by superintendent and prin- 
cipals. 

17. Promotions should be made by the principals, subject to 
approval of the city superintendent. 

18. Disputes between parents and the teaching force should be 
settled by principals, with power of appeal to the city superin- 
tendent. 

19. Compulsory education laws should be enforced by the school 
board, placing the executive duties of the ofifice in the hands of a 
truant ofificer who is not a member of the police force, who receives 
a compensation by the day, and the law should be so arranged that 
the parent or guardian who fails to comply with its provision may 
be subject to a fine or imprisonment. It should be made the duty 
of the board to appoint a truant officer. 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 221 

J. G. SCHURMAN, President of Cortiell University, 

Ithaca, N. Y. 

In reply to questions i-6, I would say that, in my opinion, there 
should be provided for every city school system a board of educa- 
tion, and that such board should consist of a large number of mem- 
bers in order to prevent manipulation which might bring it under 
the control of one man or one faction. In a city of twenty thousand 
I should think twelve members the minimum, and in larger cities, 
where the population is counted by hundreds of thousands, I should 
not think a board of fifty or sixty too large. In my opinion, the 
members of this board should be elected by the people and hold 
office for a considerable length of time — three or four years at least. 
They should not all retire at the same date, but a fraction of the 
number — say a third or a fourth — should go out annually. These 
members should, I think, be chosen to represent both districts and 
the city at large. This dual system would secure the consideration 
of local wants and peculiarities, and at the same time the well-being 
of the city schools as a whole. In reply to the sixth question, 1 
must state what will sound like a paradox in theory ; namely, that, in 
order to keep politics out of the schools, the members of the board 
should be elected in equal numbers from the two great political 
parties. 

In reply to questions 7-9, I think the superintendent of schools 
should be appointed by the board, not elected by the people, and 
that his term of office should be during good behavior. The most 
important qualification of a city superintendent is, in my opinion, 
the capacity to select good teachers. He has, no doubt, other 
duties, but, however well he fulfills them, the city schools will be a 
failure unless they have been supplied with good teachers. With 
good teachers other defects may be overcome. I do not think that 
the city superintendent should owe his appointment directly or 
indirectly to the State authorities, or be responsible to them rather 
than to the local authorities. 

In regard to question 10, I hold very strongly to the opinion that 
teachers should be licensed by the State. If the profession is to 
enjoy the dignity of other professions — say the law — there should 
be uniform tests for admission to it, and candidates who pass tliem 
satisfactorily should enjoy the privilege of practicing their profes- 
sion and be eligible for appointment in every part of the State. If 
a State board licensed teachers, it would also be their duty to 
cancel licenses for cause, which cause would, however, be reported 
to them by the city superintendent. 

In reply to questions 11-13, I think the appointment of teachers 
should be in the hands of the board of education on the nomination 
of the superintendent. Should the board of education refuse to 
act on the nomination of the superintendent, or appoint other can- 
didates, the breach between the superintendent and the board 
would be irreparable, and the superintendent would be forced to 
resign. The preceding holds true also with regard to the discharge 
of teachers. The superintendent should assign teachers to grades 



222 APPENDIX. 

or classes ; this is a matter with which the board has nothing to 
do. The principle of competitive examination should, in my 
opinion, not be introduced in determining promotions to higher posi- 
tions. Worthiness of promotion in the teaching profession depends 
upon so many circumstances, the character of which cannot be 
evaluated by examination papers, but which can be intuitivel}'' 
observed and estimated by a competent superintendent, that I 
should have no hesitation in rejecting the competitive method of 
promotion and trusting the subject to the superintendent. If it 
seems like giving him large powers, I answer it is in the main for 
the exercise of such powers that that official exists. The office of 
the superintendent adds to the mechanism of the school system the 
infinite value of personality, and we must be careful in all our regu- 
lation of the subject not to contradict the end for which the office 
exists. 

In reply to question 14, I should say that no definite answer can 
be given. Superintendent and principal must work together. And 
in dealing with the principal the superintendent should make his 
power just as little felt as possible. The consciousness of the prin- 
cipal as responsible head of the school should not be disturbed. 
On the other hand, the supreme power of the superintendent need 
not be abandoned. 

In reply to questions 15-19, I would say that, in my opinion, 
courses of study should be made by the superintendent, but ap- 
proved by the board of education, and sim.ilarly also with regard 
to the choice of text-books and with promotions. As to disputes 
between parents and teaching force, they should be settled by the 
superintendent, with the reservation of the right of appeal to the 
board of education. A compulsory education law should be en- 
forced by the superintendent with the aid of the police. 

Charles F. Thwing, President of Western Reserve 

University^ Cleveland, O. 

1. A commissioner, with an advisory council. Reason, centrali- 
zation of responsibility. 

2. Appointed by the mayor. Reason, centralization of respon- 
sibility. 

3. Full responsibility for the conduct of the educational system. 

4. Answer superfluous, by reason of answer to No. i. 

5. Answer superfluous, by reason of answer to No, i. 

6. Create a public spirit, which shall allow members of any advi- 
sory council to be chosen upon character and ability, without refer- 
ence to partisanship. 

7. Let the superintendent of schools be appointed by the com- 
missioner or by the mayor. I should make the term not less than 
four years. 

8. He should know everything, and be able to do everything, 
pertaining to the public schools ! ! 

9. Better to make their responsibility to the local authority. 
10. In the superintendent, in both instances. 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 223 

11. In the superintendent, in both instances. 

12. In the superintendent, ultimately. He may use the principals 
of the schools in securing knowledge. 

13. No. Let continued work be the test. 

14. Let the superintendent have the responsibility, and let him 
divide the supervision, as his judgment dictates. 

15. By the superintendent, and by him calling to his aid any one 
and every one who can give to him the least help. 

16. Same answer as given to No. 15. 

17. By the superintendent. 

18. By the superintendent. 

19. By the commissioner. 

These answers are based upon the general proposition that the 
superintendent is to be responsible and the efificient head. Through 
this principle, I think, we get better results than through any other. 

E. E. White, Columbus, O. 

I do not believe there is even an ideal school system equally 
adapted to all conditions. The best system for one city, with its 
school history and limiting conditions, may not be the best system 
for another city. I am not sure that the same system would be 
equally well adapted to cities of like size in different sections of the 
country. An ideal system for a city in New England might not be 
the best possible system for a city in the West or in the South. 
Past as well as present conditions and influences should always be 
considered in school legislation. Certain legislation maybe required 
to correct evils that have intrenched themselves in school adminis- 
tration, and this legislation may be very unwise under other and 
different conditions. 

I may also add that I have little faith in the ultimate success of 
any school system that is placed beyond the reach of the people. 
Their will in school affairs is sure to be law, and when school 
administration loses the confidence of the people, they will find a 
way to change it. The true end, as I see it, is to provide such a 
system of school administration as will win and hold the confidence 
of school patrons. 

Please excuse the brevity, and also the uncertainty of some of my 
answers. 

I. There should be a board of education, and also an executive 
ofificer having charge of the business department of school affairs, and 
a superintendent of instruction having charge of the schools proper. 
The general duties and responsibilities of each of these executive 
officers should be defined by State laiv. 

I am inclined to think that the head of the business department 
should be appointed by the board of education, for not less than 
five years, and that his acts should be subject to the approval of 
the board. If, however, he is to be supreme in school affairs, and 
the board only an advisory council, he should be elected by the 
people. 

In general terms, he should be the executive officer of the board 



224 APPENDIX. 

in all business affairs, and his duties should not be left to the board, 
but should be defined by the law creating the office. 

4. The number of persons constituting the board will depend 
much on conditions. As a rule, the board should not consist of less 
than five members, nor more than fifteen. More will depend on the 
fitness of the members than their number. 

5. Cannot answer definitely. There is probably no "best plan." 
That plan is best which works the best, and only experience can 
settle this. In one city, the election of school directors works 
well ; in another, it is the source of evil. In one city, the appoint- 
ment by the mayor secures good men ; in another, it fills the board 
with politicians, possibly the partisans of the mayor. I am inclined 
to think that the election of members by districts works better in 
most instances than their election by the city at large. But the 
districts should not correspond with wards, so often run by ward 
bummers. 

6. I wish I knew how to organize a city school system /;/ totich 
7vith the people, and yet free from the control and corruption of 
party politics. I would at once get the plan patented, and retire 
from hard work ! I think that a school board should not be exclu- 
sively composed of men of one political party, and this is the basis 
of my objection to the election of the members on a general ticket. 
No school board ought to be organized on political lines. But I 
leave this question to the wisdom of the Committee of Fifteen. 

7. Much will depend on- the responsibilities and duties of the 
superintendent. If he is to be the real supervisor of school work, 
he ought to be appointed for not less than five years, nor more than 
ten I doubt the wisdom of appointing superintendents for life. 
Few men can successfully supervise a system of schools more than 
ten years, and fewer more than twenty years. They are too often 
unable to see real defects in their own schools, or to devise plans 
for their correction. The schools fall into ruts. All depends, 
however, on the qualifications of the superintendent. The best 
method of appointing a superintendent I leave for the committee to 
determine. 

8. A school superintendent should be a Caesar, a Solomon, and 
an angel, all in one person I Who can describe his make-up? As 
a supervisor of instruction, he should be a scholar and an educator, 
practically acquainted with the science and art of teaching. But I 
forbear. 

9 I am not competent to answer this question. The experience 
of the country, with few exceptions, is in the direction of local con- 
trol and management of schools in cities and towns. I see little 
hope of changing this, even if desirable, except by general statutes 
regulating local management. 

10. The authority to license teachers should be vested in a board 
or committee of experts, not less than three in number, and these 
examiners of teachers should be confirmed and commissioned, if 
not appointed, by State authority. The superintendent may be a 
member of this licensing body, but, if he has the appointment of 
teachers, his relation to their licensure should be advisory. I do 



ON ORGANIZATION OF CITY SCHOOLS. 225 

not favor the investing of the superintendent with the power to 
license and also to appoint teachers. If the superintendent has not 
the power of appointment, he should be a member of the board of 
examiners or licensure. 

11. The superintendent should be vested by law with the power 
to select and appoint teachers, and also to assign them to their posi- 
tions. His appointments may be subject to the approval of the 
board, under specified limitations. The power to appoint should 
carry with it the right to discharge for cause, subject to the review 
of the proper court. The essential condition here is that the super- 
intendent's power and duty in these directions should be clearly 
defined by State law, not by regulations of the school board. For a 
fuller answer to this question, I refer you to the inclosed paper on 
"School Superintendence in Cities." 

12. Answered above. 

13. I have not over-confidence in competitive examinations as a 
means of determining promotions to school positions of higher grade 
or emolument. Certain essential qualifications cannot be disclosed 
by a formal examination, or measured by a per-cent. scale. An 
examination is largely a test of knowledge, whereas success depends 
as well on ability and character. 

14. In general terms, the superintendent should have charge of 
the schools as a whole, and the principal should be held responsible 
for the efficiency of the schools under his immediate control. Prin- 
cipals are local superintendents, acting under the direction and over- 
sight of the general superintendent, and in harmony with deter- 
mined plans and purposes. I cannot undertake a complete statement 
of the duties of each, much less their proper co-ordination. 

15. The superintendent, with the assistance of associate superin- 
tendents and principals. It may be well to provide for the approval 
of the course by all supervisors acting as a body. Under present 
conditions in most cities, the course should be finally approved by 
the board of education. 

16. The text-books should be selected by those who make the 
course of study, since they are essentially a part of the course. 

17. Promotions within the grades under the direct supervision of 
the principal should be made by him. Promotions />'<?;« one school 
or group of schools under a principal should be made by the super- 
intendent on the judgment of teachers and principals, properly ascer- 
tained. I like, as you know, the plan of monthly estimates, with 
examinations for special cases. 

18. Complaints by parents should first be made to the principal, 
and then, if desired, to the superintendent. It may be wise to pro- 
vide for an appeal from the judgment of the superintendent in speci- 
fied cases, but his decision should, in most cases, be final. When 
unsatisfactory, it may be well for him to seek its reference to a com- 
mittee composed of competent persons. 

19. I have no definite opinion on this subject. 

I have thus tried to comply with your request by giving you 
'■''running " answers to all the questions. I would like to be more 
specific on the manner of the superintendent's appointment. This, 

15 



226 ArrENDIX. 

as I see it, will depend somewhat on the manner in which the board 
is organized. A school system should have two executive officers, 
one having charge of what may be called the In/sincss department of 
the system, and the other of the internal work of the schools, the 
instruction department. These should be co-ordinate officers, and 
neither should be appointed by the other. If the superintendent of 
instruction is appointed by the head of the business department, he 
is thereby put in a subordinate position, and also his department. It 
so strikes me, but this may be the less of two evils in a given city. 
If the board is not to appoint the superintendent, as well as the head 
of the other department, the selection and appointment of the 
superintendent should be vested in some outside authority, or he 
should be elected by the people. 

The special reform in school administration needed is the differ- 
entiation of the department of school supervision and its invest- 
ment with well-defined functions and powers by State law. See 
inclosed paper. 



INDEX 



227-28 



INDEX 



Algebra, in elementary course, 55, 95. 
relation of, to arithmetic, 74. 
Greenwood on, 102. 
Analysis and isolation should precede 
synthesis and correlation, 85. 
Arithmetic, abridgment of, Greenwood 
on, loi. 
Maxwell on, 112. 
alternation of mental and written, 58. 

Greenwood on, 102. 
amount of time devoted to, 56. 
arrangement of topics in, Green- 
wood on, 102. 
five years sufficient for study of, 57. 
psychological importance of, 53. 
relation of, to mathematics, 52. 
Biography, use of, introductory to his- 
tory, 65. 
use of literary, discouraged, 84. 
Board of education, choice between 
commissioner and, Bardeen 
on, 200. 
Barnes on, 201. 
Butler on, 202. 
Carlisle on, 204. 
Corson on, 206. 
Eliot on, 207. 
Gilbert on, 210. 
Hanus on, 211. 
Harper on, 213. 
Hill on, 214. 
Hinsdale on, 215. 
Kiehle on, 217. 
Parker on, 218. 
Pattengill on, 219. 
Schurman on, 221. 
Thwing on, 222. 
White on, 223. 
Cleveland plan for, 122, 125. 
election of, Bardeen on, 200. 
Carlisle on, 205. 
Eliot on, 207. 
Gilbert on, 210. 
Hanus on, 211. 
Harper on, 213. 
Hill on, 214. 
Hinsdale on, 216. 
Kiehle on, 217. 
Parker on, 218. 
Pattengill on, 219. 
Schurman on, 221. 
White on, 224. 



Board of education, politics in, Bardeen 
on, 200. 

Carlisle on, 205. 

Hanus on, 211. 

Harper on, 213. 

Hill on, 214. 

Hinsdale on, 216. 

Kiehle on, 217. 

Parker on, 218. 

Pattengill on, 219. 

Schurman on, 221. 

Thwing on, 222. 

White on, 224. 
powers of, 121. 

(Gilbert on, 210. 

Seaver on, 131. 
selection of members of, 1 19. 
size of , 120. 

Bardeen on, 200. 

Carlisle on, 205. 

Eliot on, 207. 

Gilbert on, 210. 

Hanus on, 211. 

Harper on, 213. 

Hill on, 214. 

Hinsdale on, 216. 

Parker on, 218. 

Pattengill on, 219. 

Schurman on, 221. 

White on, 224. 
term of member of, 120. 

Seaver on, 131. 
Citizenship, intelligent, 67. 

special education in duties of, 63. 
Commissioner, election of, Bardeen on, 
200. 

Barnes on, 201. 

Carlisle on, 204. 

Harper on, 213. 

Hinsdale on, 215. 

Kiehle on, 217. 

Parker on, 218. 

Thwing on, 222. 
power and duty of, Bardeen on, 200. 

Barnes on, 201. 

Carlisle on, 205. 

Harper on, 213. 

Hinsdale on, 216. 

Parker on, 2i8. 

Thwing on, 222. 
Committee of Fifteen, appointment and 
personnel of, 7, 8. 

229 



230 



INDEX. 



Committee of Fifteen, appropriation for 
expenses of, 8. 
correspondence and discussion of, 8. 
meetings of, 8, 13, 17. 
personnel of sub-committees of, g. 
propositions adopted by, 14-16. 
publication of report of, 3, 17. 
Compulsory education, Bardeen on, 201. 
Butler on, 203. 
Carlisle on, 205. 
Corson on, 207. 
Gilbert on, 210. 
Hanus on, 213. 
Harper on, 214. 
Hill on, 215. 
Hinsdale on, 217. 
Kiehle on, 218. 
Parker on, 219. 
Pattengill on, 220. 
Schurman on, 222. 
Thwing on, 223. 
White on, 225. 
Content of education, Gilbert on, 104. 
Correlation, of course of study with pu- 
pil's environment, 41. 
of results by division. Button, Grand- 
gent, Hanus, Hill, Huling, 
and Kelley on, 178. 
Correlation of studies, by synthesis, Gil- 
bert on, 107. 
division of, Button, Grandgent, 
Hanus, Hill, Huling, and 
Kelley on, 178. 
Klemm on, 185. 
Prince on, 195. 
effect of faulty, 84, 97. 
forms of, set forth by Gilbert, 104. 

by Jones, no, in. 
in elementary education, report of 

sub-committee on, 40. 
meaning of, 40. 

Gregory on, 170, 171. 
Hanus on, 146. 
Jones on, 181. 
purpose of, Bryant on, 163. 

Button, Grandgent, Hanus, Hill, 

Huling, and Kelley on, 177. 
McMurry on, 186. 
Merwin on, 190. 
Parker on, 195. 
questions by sub-committee on, 10, 

II, 157, 158. 
relation of psychology to, 42. 
restriction of, Jones on, in. 
universality of, Bryant on, 163. 

Button, Grandgent, Hanus, Hill, 
Huling, and Kelley on, 178. 
Klemm on, 184. 
Council, school, 121. 

teachers', 204, 209, 210. 
Course of study, by whom made, Bar- 
deen on, 201. 
Barnes on, 202. 



Course of study, by whom made, Butler 
on, 203. 
Carlisle on, 205. 
Corson on, 207. 
Gilbert on, 210. 
Hanus on, 212. 
Harper on, 214. 
Hill on, 214. 
Hinsdale on, 217. 
Kiehle on, 218. 
Parker on, 219. 
Pattengill on, 220. 
Schurman on, 222. 
Thwing on, 223. 
White on, 225. 
same for all students, 87. 
Biscipline, effect of too much, 49. 
Brawing, importance of, in elementary 
school work, 69. 
time to be devoted to, 70-. 
Elementary course, brief description 
of, 67. 
length of, Bryant on, 160. 

Button, Grandgent, Hanus, Hill, 

Huling, and Kelley on, 174. 
Gregory on, 165. 
Jesse on, 180. 
Klemm on, 184. 
Merwin on, 186. 
Mowry on, 191. 
Parker on, 194. 
Stearns on, 196. 
Williams on, 196. 
Elementary school, aesthetic training in, 

branches to be studied in, 68. 

disciplinary work of, 67. 

help gained in, from recitations of 
fellow-pupils, 68. 

manual training in, 71. 

mechanical exercises in, 68. 

moral training in, 72. 

penmanship in, 92. 

physical culture in, 72. 

schedule of lessons per week for, 93. 

study of American Revolution in, 
66. 
of Constitution in, 67. 

vocal music in, 71. 
Fractions, Greenwood on teaching of, 

99, 100. 
Geography, central idea of, in elemen- 
tary schools, 60. 

comprehensiveness of meaning of, 

59- 
increasing call for wider knowledge 

of, 61. 
influence of geographical societies on 

study of, 62. 
physical, 76. 

psychological value of study of, 61. 
sequence of topics for a rational 

study of, 60. 



INDEX. 



231 



Geometry, Gilbert on, 107. 

inventional, 75. 
Grammar, discipline from study of, 48. 
Maxwell on, 112. 
use of paraphrasing in, go. 

Maxwell on, 112. 
use of text-book in, 92. 

Gilbert on, 108. 
value of, in teaching language, 48. 
Grammar-school course, rank of studies 
in, Bridgham on, 159. 
Davis on, 104. 
Dutton, Grandgent, Hanus, Hill, 

Huling, and Kelley on, 178. 
Gregory on, 172. 
Klemm on, 185. 
Parker on, 195. 
Grammar-school studies, range of, 
Bryant on, 162. 
Dutton, Grandgent, Hanus, Hill, 

Huling, and Kelley on, 175. 
Gregory on, 168, 169. 
Jesse on, i8i. 
Klemm on, 184. 
Merwin on, 188. 
Mowry on, 193. 
Parker on, 194. 
Prince on, 195. 
Stearns on, 196. 
pedagogical value of, Bryant on, 
160. 
Dutton, Grandgent, Hanus, Hill, 
Huling, and Kelley on, 174. 
Gregory on, 168. 
Jones on, 182. 
Klemm on, 184. 
Merwin on, 186. 
Mowry on, 192. 
Parker on, 194. 
History, broadening influence of study 
of, 26. 
classic period of American, 66. 
examples of heroism in United 

States, 66. 
general, in secondary course, 81. 
oral lessons on, 67. 
modification of, by variations in 

chronology, 82. 
reflective powers exercised by, 67. 
sjpiral course in, 70. 
teaching of, 65. 
History and geography, relative value 

of, 62. 
Hobbes, importance attached to the 

State by, 63. 
Home study, disadvantages of, 86. 
Hygiene, lessons in, included in natural 

science, 71. 
Instruction, according to length of 
school life, Klemm on, 185. 
Merwin on, 191. 
Parker on, 195. 
"Williams on, 197. 



Instruction, demands for scientific and 
professional, 123. 
influence of civilization on, 14, 42. 
influence of environment on, 14. 
influence of length of school life on, 
Bryant on, 163. 
Gregory on, 173. 
Jones on, 183. 
Jacotot's maxim, 96. 
Language, a product of the experience 
of people, 49. 
all learning dependent on, 44. 
development by, Gilbert on, 106. 
every lesson an exercise in, 91. 
influence of art and literature on 

study of, 48. 
Maxwell on study of foreign, 113. 
place of, in elementary school, 46. 
value of original composition in 
study of, 90. 
Language and thinking, Jones on, iii. 
Latin, substitution of, for grammar, 

73, 95- . 
Literature, aesthetic training by, 48. 
civilizing influence of higher, 47. 
correlation of, with physical facts, 

Jones on, 112. 
ethics and aesthetics in, 50, 51. 
knowledge of human nature through, 

47- 
selections for study of, 47. 
Manual training, amount of time to be 
devoted to, 71. 
Gilbert on, 106. 
Mathematics, rank of, among studies, 
52. 
tendency of exclusive devotion to, 49. 
Methods of teaching, Bryant on, 163. 

Parker on, 195. 
Model school, Hanus on, 148. 
teachers in, Barnes on, 138. 
Bliss on, 138. 
Boyden on, 139. 
Hinsdale on, 150. 
Hyde on, 152. 
Martin on, 153. 
Parker on, 154. 
Model-teacher, criticism of, Barnes on, 
138. 
Hinsdale on, 150. 
Parker on, 155. 
Natural philosophy. Christianizing in- 
fluence of, 78. 
Natural science, acquisition of, by re- 
sults, 81. 
in the elementary school, 69. 
suggestions for the teaching of, 70. 
time for oral lessons in, 70. 
Objective teaching as a specialty, 50. 
Oral lessons, argument in favor of 
weekly, 71. 
Gilbert's dissent from opinion of 
committee on, 108. 



232 



INDEX. 



Orj^.iiii/.'itinn of city scliool systems, 
(|iicsti(>iis liy siib-coinniillcc 
oil, 12, l<)S. 
rci)otl of stili-oominittec on, i 14. 
I'iiifiil :iik1 tc'iiclier, clis])iites bt'tvvccii, 
Marnes on, 202. 
Itiillcr on, 203. 
Coisoii on, 207. 
( lilliiTl on, 210. 
I laiiiis on, 212. 
I lai'iJiT on, 214. 
I lili on, 214. 
I linsilak- on, 217. 
Kii-lik' on, 218. 
I'arktT on, 2i(). 
I'a(li'iij;ill on, 220. 
Scliiiiinan on, 222. 
'I'liwiii)^' on, 223. 
Wliili- on, 225. 
I'liysifs, adaptation of, to hij;h-sciiool 

course, 7O. 
Physiology, lessons in, to t)i' iiultKlcd 

in natural science, 71 . 
Processes hecoininjjf mechanical to \)v 

avoided, 57. 
I'rojrramme, assij^iiment of lime in, 172. 
l)avis on, i()4. 
I )utton, ( irand^^ent, tianus, llill, 

Ihdiii}^, and R el ley on, 178. 
Merwiii on, i()o. 
relief studies on, 87. 
Promotion, Hardeen on, 201. 
Karnes on, 2i)2. 
lirid^ham on, 160. 
Hi yant on, 163. 
Hutli'r on, 2^)3. 
Carlisle on, 205. 
Corson on, 207. 
I'lliot on, 20(). 
(Jilbert on, 210. 
dre^jory on, 173. 
I laniis on, 212. 
I larper on, 214. 
llill on, 214. 
I linsilale on, 217. 
Jones on, 183. 
Kiehle on, 218. 
Klemni on, 186. 
Merwin on, i()i. 
Mowry on, 11)4. 
Parker on, 11)5, 219. 
Pattenjjill on, 220. 
Seluirman on, 222. 
Stearns on, H)(). 
'rhwiii)j^ on, 223. 
White on, 225. 
Williams on, n)7. 
by competitive examination, Har- 
ileen on, 200. 
Uarnes on, 202. 
Puller on, 203. 
Carlisle on, 205. 
Corson on, 206. 



Promotion, by competitive examination, 
(lilbert on, 210. 
1 1 anus on, 212. 

I larper on, 213. 

I I ill on, 214. 
Hinsdale on, 2 16. 
Kiehle on, 218. 
Parker on, 219. 
Pattenj^-ill on, 220. 
Seluirman on, 222. 
'rimiii); on, 223. 
White on, 225. 

tleviee for improvement in, ()8. 
l'sycholoj>;y, function of, in education, 
14, 25, 42. 
scientilic experiment in physioloj^i- 
cal, 43. 
l'ui)ii-teaelier, criticism of, Greenwood 
on, 142. 
('■refjory on, 144. 
1 liiisd;ile on, 151. 
1 lolloway on, 152. 
Parker on, 155. 
critics for, Hinsdale on, 151. 

Parker on, 155. 
testing of, 1 1 instlale on, 151. 
Johnston on, i 5O. 
Parker on, 155. 
Scott on, 156. 
Readinjj;, plan for, 89. 

undesirability of use of, for (itlier 
exercises, 84. 
Recitation, attention in, 96. 
leiij^th of, ()3. 

Ihyaiit on, 163. 
Hriil^ham on, 1 59. 
Dulton, (haiulj^ent, llanus, llill, 
Ihilinjr, and Kelley on, 178. 
Cirejjory on, 172. 
Klemm on, 185. 
Mowry on, 194. 
Parker on, i()5. 
Williams on, 19^. 
studies for morninjr, 86. 
Republic, true Roman meaniii); of, (14. 
Scliool administration, board for lej;is- 
lative functions of, 128. 
Pane on, 132. 
by committees, 124. 
executive of business department 
of, 128. 
Pane on, 132. 
executive of department of instruc- 
tion of, 128. 
legislative body for, 118. 
legislative and executive functions 
of, discrimination between, 
I Id, 128, 130. 
rights of parents in, 129. 
School buildings, exclusiveness in use 
of, 98. 
and supplies, care of, 204, 209. 
School director, 121. 



INDEX. 



233 



School director, Seaver on, 131. 
School system, afflicted by public senti- 
ment, 114, 117. 
authority of the people over, 1 17. 
dissociation of, from politics or re- 

lij^ion, 119, 120, 128. 
distinctive features of {jood, 98. 
Science, definition of, (h). 
educational value of, 80. 
method (jf teachinj^, 79. 

Oilbert on, loy. 
study of, to be ^n the line of expe- 
rience, 69. 
two divisions of natural, 70. 
Science and history contrasted, 83. 
Secondary and elementary work, re- 
quirements for, 139, 141. 
Secondary school, province of, 34. 
Self-education, tendency of, 78. 
Specialization of work, 80, 95. 
liryant on, 163. 

Dutton, (irandgent, IFanus, Hill, 
Ilulinjj, and Kelley on, 180. 
Gilbert on, 89. 
Jones on, 183. 
I'arker on, 195. 
Williams on, 197. 
Spellinji, 92. 

(jreenwood on, 104. 
Studies, order of, psychological, 74. 

symmetrical adjustment <jf, 40. 
Study, advanced and elementary, relative 
value of, 88. 
professional and academic, con- 
trasted, 22. 
Style, how to acquire a correct, 48, 91. 
Superintendent, appointment of, Itar- 
deen on, 200. 
Harnes on, 201. 
Uutler on, 202. 
Carlisle on, 205. 
Corson on, 206. 
f Gilbert on, 210. 
llanus on, 212. 
Harper on, 213. 
Hill on, 2r4. 
1 linsdalc on, 216. 
Kiehle (jn, 217. 
I'arker on, 218. 
I'attengill on, 220. 
Schurman on, 221. 
Thwing on, 222. 
White on, 224. 
assistants for, 126. 
authority of State over, Bardeen on, 

200. 
powers of, 123, 125. 

Seaver on, 132. 
qualifications for, Bardeen on, 200. 
Barnes on, 201. 
Butler on, 203. 
Carlisle on, 205. 
Corson on, 206. 



Superintendent, qualifications for, (Jil- 
bert on, 2IO. 
Hanus on, 212. 
Harper on, 213. 
i lill on, 214. 

I linsdale on, 2l6. 
Kiehle on, 217. 
i'arker on, 218. 
I'attengill on, 220. 
Schurnian on, 221. 
'i'hwiiig on, 222. 
While on, 224. 

responsibility of, to State authority, 
liarnes on, 2ui. 
Carlisle on, 205. 
(■f)rson on, 206. 

I I anus on, 212. 
I iarper on, 213. 
I lill on, 214. 

I liiisd.de on, 21O. 

I'arker on, 219. 

I'altengill on, 220. 

Schurman on, 221. 

'i'hwing on, 222. 

While on, 224. 
term of oflice of, 125. 

Seaver on, 132. 
.Superintendent and teacher, relative 
duties of, Bardeen on, 200. 
Barnes on, 202. 
('arlisle on, 205. 
Corson on, 206. 
Ciii)ert on, 210, 
Hanus on, 212. 
Harper on, 214. 
Hill on, 214. 
Hinsdale on, 217. 
I'arker on, 219. 
I'attengill on, 220. 
Schurman on, 222. 
Thwing on, 223. 
While on, 225. 
Teacher, appointment and discharge of, 
Bardeen on, 200. 

liutler on, 203. 

Carlisle on, 205. 

Corson on, 206. 

l''-liot on, 208. 

(iilJKTt on, 2ic>. 

Hanus on, 212. 

H.'irper on, 213. 

Hill on, 214. 

Hinsdale on, 2l6. 

Kiehle on, 218. 

I'arker on, 219. 

I'attengill on, 220. 

Schurman (jn, 221. 

Seaver on, 132. 

Thwing on, 223. 

White on, 225. 
child's need of guidance of, 79. 
grade assignment of, Bardeen on, 
200. 



234 



INDEX. 



I\';ulu-r, jjrarle assi)^iiim"nt of, ISarnos 
on, 20I. 

Carlisle on, 205. 

Corson on, 206. 

Ciilbi-rt on, 210. 

I lanus on, 212. 

I larpi-r on, 213. 

Hill on, 21^. 

I linsilalc on, 216. 

Kiclilc on, 218. 

I'arkcr on, 219. 

rattcnjiill on, 220. 

Sfliurnian on, 222. 

'rinvinjr on, 223. 

Wliite on, 225. 
j^'rad nation of, 33. 
kinds of, in Iraininjj school, 20. 
liri-nsinj;' of, Hardeen on, 200. 

Hanu'S on, 201. 

(.'arlislc; on, 205. 

('orson on, 206. 

(Wlbcrt on, 210. 

I lanus on, 212. 

1 lar|H'r on, 213. 

Hill on, 214. 

1 linsdali- on, 216. 

I'arki-r on, 219. 

I'atli'nj^ill on, 220. 

Si'liinnian on, 221. 

'I'luvinj^- on, 222. 

While on. 224. 
miiiinuini ;u-iinireinents for, 19, 20. 
position of, on eliyihle list, I2f). 
pici)aration of nornial-si'hool, 3S. 
|)repai:ition of srrondar\', lU'oni- on, 
140, 141. 

llaniis on, 145-148. 
status of, in schoolroom, 127. 
tests of success of, 32. 
'I'cachinij, .art of, 22, 37. 

Iiow to secure progress in methods 

of, 4f). 
reiiuisite elements of, 33. 
science of, 22, 36. 
Text-hooks, selection of, liardeen on, 201 . 
lUitler on, 203. 
C.arlisle on, 205. 
Corson on, 207. 
l>"liot on, 209. 
Ciilhert on, 210. 
I lanus on, 212. 
I Lirjier on, 214. 
Hill <.n, 214. 
I linsdalc on, 217. 
Kiehle on, 218. 
I'arker on, 2l(). 
raltenj^ill on, 220. 
Scluirnian on, 222. 
'rinvinj;- t)n, 223. 
White on, 225. 
Theory, ilanuson educatii^nal, 145, I4(). 
Time, ilivision of, for subji-cts, Ha\ is 
on, i()4. 



Time, division of, for subjects, Dutton, 
(irandjrcnt, llanus. Hill, Hu- 
linjj, and Kelley on, 179. 
Klemm on, 185. 
for each branch, recommendation 
reijardinjv, 89-95, 
Tojiics, division of, Davis on, 165. 
MiMwin on, 191. 
])r,ictical basis in choice of, 41. 
psychological .-irranjjement of, 41. 
se(|uence of, 40. 
I'lrwint on, 162. 
I >ult(>n, Crandjjent, llanus, Hill, 

I lulinjr, ;iiul Kelley on, 176. 
( Iri'j^ory on, i()9. 
Jones on, 183. 
Merwin on, 189. 
I'arker on, 195. 
Training of teachers, necessity ;ind pro- 
vision for, 149. 
one-sideilness of .an abstract psycho- 

lojjical, 42. 
([uestions by sub-committee on, 9, 10, 

'35- '.3^>- 
stud)' of school economy in, 26, 37. 
Traininj^ school, a^e for admission to, 
Cire^ory on, 143. 

Hinsdale on, 149. 

I'.irker on, 153. 
apportionment of time in, 23. 

Cault on, 141. 

Creenwood on, 142. 

C.rej^ory on, 143. 

I linsdale on, 150. 

I lolloway on, 152. 

I'aiker on, 1 54. 
diploma of, Hinsdale ( n, 151. 

I'arker on, 155. 
examination for, Hinsdale on, 150. 

J lyde on, 152. 

I'arker on, 154. 
history of education in, 27. 

Harnes on, 137. 

liliss on, 138. 

( iiejjory on, 144. 

I lanus on, 146. 

1 linsdale on, 150. 

Murdock on, 153. 

I'arker on, 154. 
how conducted, 27-30. 
leni^th of course in, 30-32. 

I linsdale on, 150. 

Hollow.ay on, 152. 

I'arker on, 154. 
measuremi'nt of chiKl in, I'arncs on, 

'37- 
nioile of Irainin.i; in, Ikirnes on, 137. 
Bliss on, 138. 
]k>ytlen on, 139. 
Ciavdt on, 142. 
C.reenwood on, 142. 
I lanus on, 148. 
Hinsdale on, 150. 



INDEX. 



235 



Training school, mode of training in, 
Johnston on, 155. 

Scott on, J 55. 
observation of child in, 24. 

Barnes on, 137. 

Greenwood on, 142. 

1 linstlaie on, 150. 

Holloway on, 152. 

Johnston on, 155. 

Martin on, 153. 

I*ari<er on, 154. 

Scott on, 155. 
post-jjraduate year in, 38. 
principles of education in, CJauit on, 
141. 

Hinsdale on, 150. 

Johnston on, 155. 

I'arker on, 154. 

Scott on, 155. 
psychology in, 23, 24. 

]5iiss on, 138. 

Greenwood on, 142. 

Gregory on, 144. 

llaniis on, 145. 

Hinsdale on, 150. 



Training scliool, psychology in, llydc 
on, 152. 
Miinloci< on, 153. 
i'arl<er on, 1 54. 
scholarship re(|iiircnu'nts for, I'.liss 
on, 138. 
Ifaniis on, 144, J45. 
I linsdale on, I 50. 
Johnston (jn, 155. 
Parker on, 153. 
Scott on, 155. 
school econf)my in, 26. 
scope of work in, Hinsdale on, 

151- 
Parker on, 155. 
studies in, 21. 
United States Const iliition, study of, 

66, 67. 
Unity of knowledge not outside a child's 

capacity, (Jilbert on, 105. 
Vocabulary, familiarity with a collotpiial, 

46. 
Words, internal side of, 46. 

rise of, through actual experience, 45. 
Words and ideas, relation between, 45. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF 
^ FIFTEEN ON ELEMENTARY 
EDUCATION >i WITH THE REPORTS 
OF THE SUB-COMMITTEES: ON 
THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS; ON 
THE CORRELATION OF STUDIES 
IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION; ON 
THE ORGANIZATION OF CITY 
SCHOOL SYSTEMS 



^ 



PUBLISHED FOR THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL 

ASSOCIATION BY THE AMERICAN BOOK 

COMPANY * NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO 

M D CCC XC V 



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